Subconscious projections
I was designing a series of posters advertising retirement accounts for a credit union. One had an elderly couple walking on a beach, holding hands, silhouetted against a sunset; another had a similar couple looking into the horizon from the bow of a cruise ship. The tagline on both was something to the effect of “It’s your retirement, what do you want from it?” The comments on the proofs came back (respectively) “It looks like they are walking into the sunset to die” and “It looks like they’re considering jumping overboard.”
I re-submitted some different concepts, but also commented that the client may want to contact their HR department for referral to a therapist.
