Art and Advertising - Essay Example

Art and Advertising ‘Advertising has become an art form, one of the most exciting of the latterhalf of the twentieth century’. Is advertising today really a form of art? What areas of overlap might exist between art and advertising and can the blurring of the boundaries between art and advertising give a competitive advantage to advertisers? Introduction The connection between advertising and art has become one of the most important links between the business world and the creative souls who had often shunned and even avoided working for the evil empire. Art today can be said to no longer be created for the sake of art, or for the sake of life, or even any hallowed objective like peace. Advertising has ensured that art is now performed for the sake of money and little else. Of course the critics of such a change in affairs may call this blatant commercialism but it must be realized that art has seldom been noncommercial and noncommercial art has seldom been successful in the past (Brierley, 2002). In fact, we only have to look at the commissioned work of the masters in the renaissance era to see the influence of the rich and famous patrons of the arts in their works. Going further back, we can examine how the kings and queens influenced the works of the artists in the classical and medieval eras. Therefore, it is perfectly logical to see how some of the best artists in present times (including the top graduates of art schools) have been recruited by advertising agencies and media syndicates to work for them. Art and Advertisements In the modern world, art and advertisements seem to have the same purpose, i.e. to motivate and move people towards some form of action (Lee, 2000). In this respect advertising may be a more difficult art form than painting or sculpture since it might be far easier for people to give off an emotion which costs them nothing rather than loosen their purse strings and spend money on something which they might even not need at all. Given the times we live in, even things like the GUI (Graphical User Interface) design of a computer or the layout and graphics used on a website could indeed by accepted as a valid form of art (Brierley, 2002). Moreover, even the applications being used on the computer for productivity or entertainment can be art forms as exemplified by the computer gaming industry which now beats Hollywood in terms of monetary size (Wikipedia, 2006). Fundamentally, art and advertisements today are all about the money and the amount of sales they can generate for a company. What is Art? The statements and the problem presented in the topic certainly lead us to the question of what is art and who can be considered an artist? From the research done in this regard, it can be plainly said that there is no clear cut definition of who can be considered an artist and what can be considered as art. In fact, there may be as many definitions of art as there are artists on earth. An even broader view would allow every person to have their personal definition of art While one person may consider rock music to be an acceptable art form, another may consider it to be nothing more than noise and say that only the classical works of Edgar, Beethoven and Mozart are musical art forms. At the same time, a critic may consider the photographs taken by a master photographer to be the soul of art while those taken for a Hugo Boss fashion shoot to be nothing more than crass commercialism, or as the simple exploitation of women and even go so far as to call them pornography (Wikipedia, 2006). My Kingdom for a Definition Since an agreed upon definition of art is difficult to come by, it is possible to look at several different definitions of art and historical ideas about art which would let us understand how advertising can be considered an art form (Ostrow, 2003). The word itself has not strayed much in its usage from the Latin where it can be translated to mean skill or ability in a certain field (Wikipedia, 2006). Of course in this context it can certainly be applied to advertising since advertising requires a high level of skill and ability which is sometimes hard to find amongst the general population (Tarateta, 2001). Therefore a very generic definition of art can be arrived at by considering that whatever has gone through a system of arrangement with applied skill towards the production of something which is appealing to the senses is art (Wikipedia, 2006). While this definition could cover things like the culinary arts, it might not cover areas like the art of war, which is certainly accepted by Sun Tzu to be an art but might be considered as nothing less than unnecessary, wasteful, cold hearted bloodshed by others. In any case, when it comes to advertising, if we accepted the opinions of the art experts who give out the Emmy’s, then advertising is not only an art form but something which must be awarded and respected as much as the work done by any other Emmy winner. Apple Computer’s ‘Think Different’ campaign for their iMac line of computers won an Emmy for its artful presentation of ideas regarding the users of the Apple computer (Rosenberg, 1999). Even before that, the 1984 commercial for Apple computer’s Macintosh machine was considered to be more art than advertisement. These two campaigns form the centre of the argument for why advertising is not very different from other forms of fine art which are displayed in museums and galleries around the world. The Campaigns The company which frequently blurs the line between advertising and art is none other than Apple Computer which has been creating breakthrough advertisements in print, such as the ‘Think Different’ campaign, as well as video formats such as the ‘1984 commercial’. In fact, the first commercial which caused many art critics to sit up and take note was the 1984 big brother commercial which is still considered to be one of the best in terms of art direction and creative application of technology concepts. 1984 Scott (1991) explains the persuasive power of the 1984 commercial as well as the artistic merits of the ad by taking a literary criticism approach to the video. The commercial itself can be described as a young female being chased by masked storm trooper like soldiers as she rushes past trudging workers wearing grey overalls with shaved heads. She approaches a massive screen where a big brother like figure is making a speech and she hurls a sledge hammer into the screen which causes a huge blast. A calm and smooth voice then announces that 1984 will not be like 1984 because of the Macintosh (Scott, 1991). This advertisement simply smashed every advertising convention known at the time since it only carried a minimal corporate identity, no message about the technical prowess of the computer, no mention of direct benefits to the individual, not even the price point of the item being offered. Simply put, as it was known in 1984, this ad could not even be considered advertising. However, if art is meant to motivate people then this approach certainly worked because when the Macintosh computer became available in the market three days after the airing of the ad, more than two hundred thousand people were waiting in lines across America to put their money down to buy one (Scott, 1991). Two Thumbs Up A critical analysis of the advertisement sounds eerily similar to a critical review which might be given to a film noir or to any other art film which has been highly acclaimed at the Sundance festival. Scott (1991) says that: “The theme of the commercial is one of individual action to prevent homogenizing tyranny and its form is a mirror of its theme. The spot communicates through an artful arrangement of images that has its own internal logic. The spot keeps the audience unbalanced and curious throughout the viewing, and thus open to affective experience through which it persuades (Scott, 1991, pg. 67).” The review goes on to use words like “rich symbolic imagery (Scott, 1991, pg. 67)” and further says that the commercial created an experience which was participatory in nature for the viewers and the experience altered dynamically from the starting scenes to the explosive finish. Certainly, these positive remarks would make any artist proud of their creation and the acceptance of this advertisement as art is nothing more than a forgone conclusion. While the artistic value of the advertisement can not be denied, the business value must also be appreciated since it aired only once during the prime time viewing slot while making news headlines the very same night and was repeat broadcast by several channels free of cost to Apple. The long lines which formed to buy the computer are also a testament to the ability of the artwork to motivate and move people as good art has often done for the past hundreds of years. Think Different The second campaign by Apple Computer which deserves to be discusses in the context of art and advertising is their ‘Think Different’ campaign which was launched in 1997 soon after the return of Steve Jobs to the position of CEO at the company. If art is taken to be the application of creative skill then this campaign certain fits the description since it shows how people can be motivated by buy something which is mass produced, compatible with almost every other computer and is not very different from other computers which were made by Apple in the past. The video campaign for ‘Think Different’ won an Emmy but it is the print campaign which made a significant impact for sales and also won several awards for the advertising firm of TBWA\Chiat\Day. Each of the ads shown below is a part of a set of pictures of famous personalities. The people used for the campaign are some of the most admired achievers in the world and come from all sorts of fields like government, business, sports, performing arts and human rights activism. A few examples are shown below reproduced by Elliot (1998) and include (in order) Jim Henson, Maria Callas, Thomas Edison and Jackie Robinson. Again, there is little product identification and only the logo of the company is presented to the viewer. The focus of the image remains on the person being revered. The campaign has featured more than 40 such individuals and the list includes names like Bob Dylan, Einstein, Ted Turner, Picasso, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Muhammad Ali, Alfred Hitchcock, Miles Davis, Martin Luther King Jr., Amelia Earhart, Jim Henson, Rosa Parks, Frank Lloyd Wright and Gandhi. If winning an Emmy for this campaign gave the advertisements acceptance as art by the critics, the increased sales which Apple computer enjoyed after these ads were presented to the public show their acceptance of the idea. A Competitive Advantage? Art being used as advertising or advertising which is nothing less than art is certainly a competitive advantage for any company. Advertising creates an image for the company and for Apple Computers to associate itself with the most creative and successful individuals in history can be seen as an extremely good move by any standard. This association feeds the individual desire to be different from others and to feel special with an Apple Computer since presumably that feeling can not be had by simply buying an IBM PC clone. Taking a look at the history of advertising, the popularity of neon signs in the 50s and 60s shows how being different, more attractive and more visible than the competition is simply a competitive advantage which leads to more business coming to the company. If using art is the method to get more buyers, businesses will be falling over each other to get hold of artists who can get them more money. At the same time, if advertisements which are closer to art than those which extol the virtues of a product seem to be more acceptable and lead to more business, then artistic advertisements will be the order of the day. It seems that the world today needs to be as entertained by advertisements as it needs to be informed (Lee, 2000) and while the traditional use of art has been in relation to both, advertisements have to battle the remote controller or digital tools which can simply skip those ads which are not entertaining or impressive for the viewers. In this regard, entertaining, artful and viewable ads are not only a competitive advantage for a company, they are simply necessary for whatever message needs to be given to the viewers or readers. Conclusion There is no doubt that advertising is an art form and those who do not consider it to be art will soon have to change their minds just like the U.S. Post office which held out postage stamps as hallowed space until it too had to give in to the lure of advertising (Bulik & Teinowitz, 2006). Instead of turning their nose at advertisements as an acceptable art form, the art critics should realize that art is often defined by popularity and being highbrow or lowbrow is nothing more than an arbitrary classification which can change as time and taste force it to. However, it also seems believable that certain individuals will continue to define art in a very narrow sense and not allow any commercialism to enter into it (Skidelsky, 2006). Again, the point made in the introduction can be repeated here to summarize that art has always needed patrons and if rich lords or popes with discretionary funds are hard to find, there are always companies like Apple Computer and many others who have billions to spend on marketing and advertising. Therefore, the ads produced for them should be acceptable avenues for creativity as well as acceptable forms of art. Works Cited Brierley, S. 2002, The Advertising Handbook, Routledge. Bulik, B. and Teinowitz, I. 2006, ‘Advertising goes postal’, Advertising Age, vol. 77, no. 21, pp. 4-40. Elliott, S. 1998, ‘Behind “Think Different”’, New York Times, [Online] Available at: http://www.electric-escape.net/node/565 Lee, M. 2000, The Consumer Society Reader, Blackwell. Ostrow, J. 2003, ‘Is advertising an art or a science? Its both, often simultaneously’, Cable World, [Online] Available at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DIZ/is_24_15/ai_103373770 Rosenberg, S. 1999, ‘Commercial development: Ad folks recognized by Acad for its 30-, 60-second stories’, Variety.com, [Online] Available at: http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=emmy1999&page=emmys99_story&articleid=VR1117503007 Scott, L. 1991, ‘For the Rest of Us: A Reader-Oriented Interpretation of Apples “1984” Commercial’, Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 25, no. 1, pp 67-81. Skidelsky, E. 2006, ‘Objects of veneration’, New Statesman, vol. 135, no. 4798, pp. 56-56. Tarateta, M. 2001, ‘Advertising & Art: A Modern-Day Marriage’, Art Business News, [Online] Available at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HMU/is_4_28/ai_73063938 Wikipedia, 2006, ‘Art’, Wikipedia.org, [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art Word Count: 2,502 Read More