Ford Print Ad Uses Optical Illusion to Let You 'Park' a Car

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By Todd Wasserman2014-07-25 12:55:07 UTC

Print advertising may be a bit passé as a medium, but that doesn't mean that clever advertisers can't have some fun within the confines of a declining channel of communication.

At least you could make the case that Ford and Israeli ad agency BBR Saatchi & Saatchi are still experimenting with the form. In this ad, the agency and client tap an optical illusion that's more than 100 years old to create an "interactive" print ad.

See also: OK Go's Mind-Boggling Music Video Is a Trove of Optical Illusions

Try it yourself. If you stare at the black dot in the third car on the right for 30 seconds or more then your eyes will create a black car that you can "park" between the other two.

How is this possible? The visual appears to be a riff on the Hermann Grid Illusion, in which the eye creates small grey blobs on the corner of each black square:

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Topics: Advertising, Business, ford