Every Journey Needs a Journal

The Journal has a terrific print campaign in progress. Using the full two-page spread in the center of various sections, they feature a successful person who has taken risks, sometimes failed and yes, finally succeeded. The Tiki Barber example to the left is part of the ongoing campaign.

The accompanying web site offers a rich, flash-driven interface that allows you to browse the 'journey' of nine (now successful) individuals. The point of the campaign is to illustrate visually and figuratively what the climb to success looks like. It is often littered with mistakes, but always fueled by a desire to grow and learn.

Adverblog seems to agree:

"They play with the concept "Life is a journey", picturing the life of nice celebrities, and at the end of the path they add the tagline "Every journey needs a Journal".

The site is simple and clean as you expect a WSJ campaign to be, but it's also very powerful and meaningful in presenting the concept. Photography, illustration and typefaces are perfectly combined to support the storytelling."

When other campaigns attempt to visually assault the viewer to get our attention, this one takes the 'less is more' approach. The concept is simple, clean and refreshing. It has that 'business plan written on a napkin' look to it, which I alwasy find inspiring. The goal may be to sell more subscriptions, but to those of us already reading the Journal, it reminds us to keep reaching, keep dreaming and never take 'no' for an answer. And who doesn't need a reminder like that once in a while?