Suitcase of my dreams

26/9/2013

Sitting over a flat white at the Costa Coffee in the departure lounge of Dubai International Airport the other day, not twenty-four hours after I'd visited the Waitrose in the main Dubai shopping mall (the one with the aquarium, in the financial district), I happened to notice, above my head, an ad for Samsonite luggage.
    In the picture, a woman with a couch behind her and her Samsonite hard-shell, four-wheeled carry-on bag beside her. She was wearing a long, one-piece item of clothing that perhaps she'd pulled on over her head after getting up off the couch. Standing in a white cube/bedroom/consulting room. About to step out into the rather more colourful world around her white space.
    Now, if I was a digital native, I would have snapped a pic and uploaded it here. But ads (still) need words, and the words were what got my attention, and I'm going to use words to zero in on that.
    The tagline for this ad was:
    < Step out. Listen to that inner voice. Follow your heart. Embrace every possibility. >
    With your Samsonite carry-on bag beside you.
    I like that the tag wasn't < Room for lots of socks > or < You can squeeze everything into this bag > or even < Cubic capacity: x litres > or whatever.
    I like the way that (some) advertising is flying free of whatever product is being advertised, and describing instead a (spiritual?) quest for some kind of self-actualisation. Follow your heart, et cetera. We should listen to these ad agencies. They seem to be onto something.
    But I'm not quite sure what to think about my early-morning visit to the Samsonite website. My bag will hold out for a few more possibility-embracing excursions yet.
    Although it isn't shiny-red. And it hasn't got four wheels.

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