Cereal brand’s hilarious billboards commit almost every graphic design crime imaginable

As January rolls around, many of us will be focused on New Year’s resolutions around fitness, but breakfast brand SURREAL is throwing typical wellness out the window. With a series of sarcastic and slapdash billboards, the brand is embracing an imperfect “can’t be bothered” attitude, which let’s be honest, most of us are secretly feeling post holiday season. 

While it isn’t the typical example of the best billboard advertising, the comical ads are certainly traffic-stopping (albeit for all the wrong reasons). With typos, Microsoft Word Art and hilariously primitive design, the billboards are certainly living up to the self-proclaimed status as some of the “laziest adverts” of the year. 

In an overpopulated sea of ‘new year, new me’ advertisements, SURREAL captures a refreshing playfulness that feels surprisingly relatable despite its crude design. Promoting its protein-packed cereal products, the ads feature the recurring statement “Can’t be bothered this month? Neither can we,” a sentiment that’s reflected in the countless graphic design flaws littered throughout the billboards.

From stick figures to lazy product screenshots, each ad has a unique and hilarious incompetence. One billboard is simply a pasted-together presentation slide, while another features stilted copy reading “jANUARY hEALTHY buy some,” alongside a haphazardly placed award for “best cereal” covering its product shot. Amidst the chaotic design is also a delightful dash of Word Art accompanied by the infamous typographical legend, Comic Sans. 

Despite the campaign’s apparent ‘ineptitude’, SURREAL has expertly captured a refreshing and genuinely humorous tone. The brand’s hilarious celebrity billboards from last year prove that it’s a standout in silly and amusing marketing and it’s fun to see a brand nailing a more ‘human’ approach. For more knockout ads, take a look at AA’s Street Fighter billboard.