Yes, Its Art

An article in April 15^th The Standard of Hong Kong lead to this blog entry. I’m sure many of you have heard of the late 19th century French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. How many of you know that Toulouse-Lautrec got his start by painting advertising posters for the famous Parisian nightclub Moulin Rouge?  Many of you know of  the mid 20th Century American artist Andy Warhol and his portraits of famous actors and those Campbell’s soup cans, yet how many know that Warhol got his start as a commercial artist in the 1950’s and his works appeared in Glamour Magazine and in ads for Schiaparelli gloves?

What’s the point of this little art history lesson, you ask?  Simple, it’s that art isn’t just the stuff in museums. It is even in advertisements, such as those for a nightclub from 19^th century France all the way to a movie poster from 21^st century America. While the object of both kinds of advertisements is to get the viewer to part with his or her money, they  had to be visually appealing enough to make the viewer want to part with his or her money.

Which leads to another aspect of advertisements, namely they have a job to do. The most beautiful advertisement in the world doesn’t always lead to sales. For example, the first ad designed by David Ogilvy, the founder of the Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Agency and the author of Confessions of an Advertising Man and Ogilvy on Advertising was a flop. What was so bad about it? It was an ad for a cooking stove and he put in a picture of the Edouard Manet painting Luncheon on the Grass. Underneath the picture was copy about how new things shock people. Only towards the end of the copy was the cooking stove mentioned. What does a painting and shocking people have to with a cooking stove? Nothing and it was only after the ad ran did Ogilvy realize that fact. Well, so much for being creative.

The article in The Standard stated that advertisements are accidental art and I disagree. It took a talented artist to create these items, be it a poster for a nightclub or a movie poster. They had bring together both art and business to create something that makes money and that’s no accident. When it works, the client and artist are very happy. When it doesn’t, as in the case of Ogilvy’s Luncheon on the Grass ad, the artist either ends up with something that has the client scratching his or her head or the artist ends up unemployed.

Shock, entice, or befuddle, a good ad, like the good piece of art that it is, is never boring.

Sources:
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=12&art_id=110171&sid=32037230&con_type=3&d_str=20110415&fc=7

http://www.warhol.org/ArtCollections.aspx?id=1673

http://www.warhol.org/ArtCollections.aspx?id=1758

Ogilvy, David. Ogilvy on Advertising,  First Vintage Books, March 1985, pg. 25

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Movie Posters That Make You Ask ???

The Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz film Knight and Day made only $20 million on its opening weekend. Those in the know state a few reasons for this.  One is that Cruise and Diaz are past the prime of the teen and 20something movie going public. Another reason for the less than splashy opening weekend is the marketing of the film, in particular the movie poster. The poster features the names of the stars but not their faces. The poster was tested in focus groups and it didn’t bother anyone in the focus groups that Cruise’s and Diaz’s faces weren’t on the poster. Go figure.

Of course Knight and Day isn’t the first movie poster not to feature the stars of the film. There have been recent and not so recent film that have done that and they are:

Matrix Reloaded Digital Rain
I mention this poster in my April 15, 2010 entry Yes Mr. Ebert & Mr. Fellman, There Are Artistic Movie Posters From Recent Films and I like this poster, a lot. The poster shows green digital “rain” against a black background.  To see a picture of this poster, click here:

http://www.impawards.com/2003/matrix_reloaded.html

The Lovely Bones
This movie is based on the book of the same name by Alice Seybold. While the poster is beautiful, if you didn’t know the movie was based on a book it would cause a person to wonder what kind of movie was being promoted.  The poster features a runner in a field of what looks like harvested crops. The sky is menacing and there’s a tree in the middle that features a flock of birds flying out of the tree where the leaves are.  To see what I mean, click here:

http://stockdisplays.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/top-10-worst-movie-posters-ever/

Outrageous!
This is a low budget Canadian film from the 1970’s about the unlikely friendship of two former schoolmates, one is gay, the other is a schizophrenic. The movie poster just features the title of the film, in white type on a red background. Again, there is no way to learn what the film is about or who stars in it, from the poster.  To see an example of the poster, click here:

http://stockdisplays.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/top-10-worst-movie-posters-ever/

So, if you should see a movie poster with no pictures of those staring in the film, no names of the stars or even a hint as what genre the film is, know that it is not the first time something like that was done. Of course, if the movie bombs, the blame will be with the movie poster.

Sources:
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/movies/2455582,CST-FTR-cruise02.article

http://www.impawards.com/2003/matrix_reloaded.html

http://stockdisplays.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/top-10-worst-movie-posters-ever/

http://www.amazon.com/Outrageous-Craig-Russell/dp/B0002OXV0K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1278690423&sr=1-1