The Catalonian National Theatre's Heart-Rending Ad

The Catalonian National Theatre takes a gory and visually disturbing approach in this new print ad that tries to entice you to come to the theatre by scaring the hell out of you.

With a tagline of “Let us play with your emotions,” the ad shows a hand digging deep inside the chest of a young man and going for the heart while blood soaks the man’s shirt. 

While the shockvertising approach might be a bit disturbing, I think it works well here in grabbing the attention and adding a dramatic dimension to the rather cheesy “playing with emotions” line.

If the shows and plays are as captivating as this ad, it just might be worth the expensive tickets.

The September 2008 ad is photographed by David Ruano for TBWA, Barcelona, with the creative team of Ramon Sala, Miquel Sales, and Fer Garcia.