This might confuse...

The green italicized words are links to interesting morsels. They look strange to me for some reason...I don't want you to miss out on all the fun.

"Making money is art, and working is art, and good business is the best art." -Andy Warhol

Wow...interesting stuff in those last two chapters. I particularly enjoyed the comparisons of advertising art to that of the Holy Roman Empire. Thought out, and presented very well. Here we have a writer, as opposed to Klein, the rabble-rouser. He articulately presented his ideas in an objective and comprehensive manner. Nice job Mr. Twitchell.

Several things in the reading really sparked some ideas/memories for me. This blog may be kind of scatter shot, but hopefully interesting. Please excuse any rambling. I've slept little over the last week. Thursday thanks to...

RUSH

Sorry, just wanted to practice link-making....anyway...back to business.

As I've stated before I love the concept of the High vs. Low arts. The penultimate chapter of ADCULT accurately discussed the melding of the two, in comparison to selling religion during the Renaissance. Now, as we look back at art through the age of advertising we find many antique advertising artists praised as high art:

Alphonse Mucha

George Petty

Then came the pop art movement. These artists actually took advertising, graphics and comic art and made it high art:

Where Andy Warhol turns everyday items like a Soup Can and Box of Brillo pads into art. Or Roy Lichtenstein uses supremely low-brow comic book imagery to captivate the critics.

Now we have the high art world of film taking from comic books to be critically acclaimed:


And even garner Oscar-calibre films:



I have to say, I find many advertisements more interesting than this trash by one of America's financially more successful artists, Michael Godard.

And finally, for all of you pop art fans, here we have the complete blending of art and commerce:

Andy Warhol




More about the Art Cars

This is funny to see:



Salvador Dali, or should we say, SELLvador Dali?





And finally, it all comes together, early branding meets the arts. Song should have done their homework...Interestingly, branding, art and sports join to become one here:






"I'd asked around 10 or 15 people for suggestions. Finally one lady friend asked the right question, 'Well, what do you love most?' That's how I started painting money. "

-Andy Warhol

Two quick things as I look at the last post

Sorry, Sir Paul got placed in the wrong spot. He was to be after Bono and the boys. As I was looking things over I noticed that after posting. Also, do you think Bono, the preachy King of the Cause, investigated Apple's manufacturing processes before signing on with them and making the signature model, U2 iPod? What would Klein say about one of her troubadour's jumping to the other side, then making his Product (RED), a failed attempt to brand charity as fashion?

http://www.joinred.com/

I personally don't support this activity. Good idea, but I like to know where my donation dollars are going. This is a very interesting blog discussing whether it is raising awareness or just making us pay more for the same crap.

http://thephilanthropicfamily.com/2008/07/01/product-red-inspired-or-tired/

Joining the Adcult

Could this be the meeting of Upper Aesthetica and Lower Vulgaria, as Twitchell states?



Just thought those were funny terms, and what could be more Vulgar than a rat cooking your Upper Aesthetican food?

I always find the battle between high art and common art entertaining. Isn't it, in the end, the commoner who decides whether or not something has staying power? If the Medici's were the only people who decided what was successful it is unlikely that Michealangelo would still be held in such high regard.

Another thing that came to mind when I was reading was how strange it is that no matter how much money a company invests in and advertising plan it may or may not be successful. Three unsuccessful products:

In case one, we have a popular song, uplifting imagery and what I thought was a pretty good product. I drank the heck out of this stuff.



Here we have a similar situation, famous (at the time) band Papa Roach, product that tested well among the demographic, (teens and twentysomethings), and an image that resonated with that group as a result of The Fast and the Furious film. Result: failed product.



Here we have one of the greatest pitch men, a trusted face, one of the most popular men in America (at the time). Result: Failed product.



Many would argue that this failed because they tampered with something sacred. I think it was just an overblown ad campaign to sell more Coke, period. It worked I think.

Now here is one of the most revolutionary campaigns. The difference, no pitch man, no familiar songs or voices, just captivating imagery that turned the electronics world upside down, and re-legitimized a niche company.





Then the killer-bring in the superman, Bono. Sell records, iPods and eventually AIDS awareness.

And finally, Royalty, to do the same thing. Ladies and gentlemen, Sir Paul McCartney. I actually bought this crappy record too...





If you think advertising doesn't affect the news, I just implore you to watch 60 minutes over the next few weeks. See how many "guests" are pitching a book. Further research may turn up, as I've read, that these books are published by a subsidiary of CBS. News is entertainment folks. It sells ads, plain and simple. Just look at the also failing Katie Couric experiment. America's darling makes a newswoman not.

One final note, Twitchell discusses Easter, a candy holiday, and it's inability to compete with the beer holidays, such as New Years and Saint Pat's Day. You don't see ads like this promoting Hershey Bunnies...



Remind you of some other holiday? I love the shamrock jammies. Gotta get me some of those...

This is a good campaign too. I always chuckle watching this. Regarding 60 minutes, does this look familiar?









I particularly like the "horse doo doo" one.

Through this weeks reading the story changed from one of branding to one of the evils of corporate America. I was less impressed with the section of the book than I was the beginning part. Klein began several chapters with discussion about some form of illegal, and marginally creative work to fight "the man". I'm less impressed with this type of activity than I am with the creativity and flair that the marketing people have. The truth is, we as lazy instant-gratification-wanting Americans allow this marketing cluster to happen. When we break it all down the story really has less to do with the greedy corporation than it does with poor decision making and a general lack of identity of our own culture. It's really a story of the evils of consumerism, not corporate money making.

In her chapter concerning temporary labor, I can't say I have much pity. My company uses temporary labor quite regularly. This is our way of identifying individuals that would fit in well with our business. We use it as an audition. Ninety percent of our work force were originally brought on board through a temp agency. We've found some incredible individuals with this manner of recruiting. But, in order to get that level of competence we've probably gone through five temps for everyone one we hire. Most situations had nothing to do with ability. Most people were let go because of a lack of work ethic, zero motivation, or they just wouldn't show up for work. That's not mentioning the few that didn't come back because of jail sentences.
The reality of the situation is this, people don't want to work anymore. Our nation has become a culture of entitlement. Most people expect things to be handed to them. There is an unwillingness to work for what we get. They're unwilling to show up for a job that someone else found them, they're unwilling to do the minimum expected for the investment a company is willing to put in them. When a person takes a job there is a kind of agreement. They're providing a service to the company. When they don't provide that service adequately, unless they're fired, they still reap the full benefits of the employment. I feel it's not fair to always expect a company to give, give, give. Overseas labor is attractive mostly because Americans no longer want to do the dirty work. Someone has to do the cleaning and the serving. Enterprising people recognize this and use this need to their advantage. Most of the more wealthy people I know operate cleaning and lawn care businesses.
I get the feeling that Klein tries to make the reader feel like we're victims. And we are, but not really to the global corporations. While there is injustice overseas regarding labor, this has more to do with the cultural and governmental corruption of the local politics. Here in this country we've fallen victim to the leftist idea of entitlement minded behavior. This has created a lazy, uninterested work force.

I'm not very impressed with adbusting and culture jamming. While most of it is witty, there really isn't any creativity in the form. Taking someone else's idea and just messing around with it isn't creative. My impression is that these are all very witty people with too much time on their hands. The ultimate silliness was the gentleman who worked for advertising during the day and in his off time defaced the ads on which he probably worked. Actually, unless the defacement of these ads is very striking, most probably go unnoticed through the course of a day. A lost message in the sea of lost messages.
Klein does mention on page 295 how this action has led to a new brand of its own. You can see that type of marketing here, at the Adbusters.org culture shop:

http://www.adbusters.org/cultureshop/front

Through most of this second part of the book I've actually begun to feel insulted. The problem with this type of activity, and liberalism as a whole, is that it gets too preachy. Most people are in fact turned off by the higher-than-thow approach many activists take when communicating and issue. I really don't take kindly to someone telling me what I should or shouldn't do. Open and honest discussion is important for educating people, but childish antics, rebellious acts and soabox standing are really just a form of entertainment, not revolution.

For this weeks blog I've just kind of taken notes throughout the week, starting with our viewing of "The Persuaders" It's going to be several links that kind of solidify some of the concepts this week.

First was the use of music in commercials. Two extreme examples of using this well were when Sting basically released an album to sell to commercials. Also the artist Moby often stated he sold almost everything with his album play, just to get his music out there. Two very different uses, but two similar results, astronomical record sales. Moby actually considered it a very "punk rock" thing to do, use the "man" to get your message out there.

Interesting Blog here:
http://www.leftoffthedial.com/12_01FeatureArticle.htm

and here:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/10836

boring, but interesting moby interview about balancing art and commercialism:







Interesting website to find out "who sings that song?"
http://adtunes.com/

Ironically, my girlfriend's brother is in a band that has sold some songs for commercials, as seen here. They didn't make Moby or Sting money, but it is financing their new record so there is a benefit to "selling out" it allows you to do more "art". Especially when you make instrumental music that probably won't sell a million copies.:








Much is written about coolhunters. Here is an article from USAToday about how the "fanboy" has become the ultimate coolhunter's prey.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-07-24-fanboys_N.htm

Klein talks about counterculture becoming image. Here's an interesting blog about the fashion of Che, the communist revolutionary and killer that is now an icon, mostly thanks to the band Rage Against the Machine.

http://www.babalublog.com/archives/001184.html

This website amuses me:
http://www.thechestore.com/

A different spin on this:
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/3/27/93005.shtml

The branding of Political Correctness is explained in movie form:
(I apologize for any profanity)





This movie, once you pull away the blatant attempt to be a new age Animal House, actually does a good job of satirizing not only Political Correctness, but also the branding of said PC activity.

An interesting ad campaign for a Scandisk Mp3 player portrayed all iPod users as lemmings.
http://plusdujour.com/leBlog/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/idont1.jpg

Here's an interesting article concerning the failure of the idea.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1986008,00.asp

I was intrigued by Klein's discussion on page 69, of the idea, "Am I cool?" I don't think cool people really worry about this. I don't think Jimi Hendrix, James Dean, or John Lennon walked around asking themselves this question. Really cool people can make anything cool. Heck, look at Devo. They made the flowerpot an interesting accessory.

http://www.trakmarx.com/2007_03/devo/devo-energy_domes-1980-720.jpg

Truly cool people just be...that's what makes them cool. It's not a campaign or product. True cool just happens. It then becomes an institution, but it just happens. And some of the coolest people ever were totally uncool. Look at Buddy Holly, and Jim Carrey. Geeks to the Nth, degree, but damn cool people.

This week it's a bit difficult to be as visual as I was last week, but there were some interesting things in these chapters. The most interesting concept was the idea of Culture Codes, unwritten laws of culture that are basically unnoticed, but very evident in our lives. Berger mentions on page 208 that these codes are covert and that someone who recognizes the codes can modify and arrange them to suit their purposes.

You'll see this everywhere in advertising. The whole art of advertising is using peoples' understood signs to make them desire a certain product or service. If you look at the iPod and iTunes commercials you see how the whole package is idealized and symbolized. The iPod itself has become a symbol of convenient entertainment and advancing technology (look at the iPod Touch). Steve Jobs and his crew have done a great job of manipulating our sense of desire by creating iconic commercials and an easily recognized product to take the digital music market by the neck.

An even more extreme culture code manipulation, but definitely more obvious would be Adolf Hitler's almost magical ability to control the German people. He and his men did a masterful job of playing up and reestablishing pride to the German population. He then began modifying and eventually replacing their symbols for newer, more dramatic images. These images have transformed not only the German people, but have had far reaching effects on today's western society. Who doesn't do a double take when there is visible swastika? Communist Russia, or any communist state really, uses peoples' communal sensibilities in much the same manner, to control and manipulate the hard working, dedicated proletariat population.

I was also intrigued by the notion of Food as a Sign. I never really thought of this, and at first was quite taken back by the man's statement on the inferiority of American food to Mexican and French. I will argue the Mexican cuisine point, considering that everything Mexican is some type of meat with beans, cheese and maybe rice, placed in or on a tortilla of either flour or corn. This tortilla can be hard or soft, but it all seems to boil down to that. I have Navy friends who are Mexican and Texan. They took me to an "authentic" Mexican resaurant, and the food didn't deviate much from that formula. I do love Mexican food though.

American food, not just fast food, but real American food is diverse and flavorful. Each region has a specialty, or common ingredient. Using fast food, particularly McDonald's, to represent American food as a whole isn't quite a scholarly approach to the subject.

It's true fast food is a large part of our lives. His explanation of the mechanization of our food was interesting. Particularly if you consider many renditions of our future world, like Star Trek and the Jetsons, remove food from the equation. On Star Trek they replicate everything. Other sci-fi shows even have us taking pills for sustenance. This however, reflects more of our fast-paced lifestyle, not our taste in food. And at least McDonald's seems to have a bit more variety than your typical Mexican restaurant.