This picture was taken inside a subway station in Milan. It portrays a billboard advertisement for a well known fitness club in the capital of Lombardy. Its claim is “Demand more!” As a growing demonstration of the power of consumers, a group of boys and girls wrote a message to the company in marker (see picture below).

Translation: Yes, we demand more! We demand to get our bodies back, be it feminine, masculine or even commercial. We demand the creativity of advertisers to abandon this banality. We demand that no one complains if we smear with a marker something that smears our dignity.

It is the best proof that the monologue (one-way communication from the company to the consumer) has become a dialogue. The consumer is ruthless in speaking with the company, in any form, and “demands” more: not only regarding products and services but also, as you can see in this case, from any creative machine. We wait with curiosity to see what the club’s next advertising campaign will focus on. For next season, will it accept the request? Will it answer? Will it agree to a dialogue with its consumers?