Ryan’s last post coincided with a lot thinking I’ve been doing about advertising in general, and how it fits into the world of media and art.
It’s actually one of many chance happenings to have transpired during my serious explorations of the subject. One of which, I’ve already posted about. That being my well-timed discovery of the book The Pirate’s Dilemma randomly mentioned in an article about NAB in the Broadcast Engineering magazine I subscribe too.
Independent of, but supported by these coincidents, I’ve managed to discover what advertising isn’t. It’s not a print ad, or billboard, or fancy packaging, or commercial, or viral video, or a pixelated lego dog. It’s not anything tangible whatsoever, because these “things” are actually products sold in a business to business market.
So what is advertising then?
Advertising is actually a critical type of communication. When I say ‘critical’, I mean necessary for survival, and when I say ‘communication’, I’m describing a two-way, speed-of-light, exchange-of-information pathway.
So if advertising is a transfer of ideas, it can apply to nearly everything we do in life and isn’t the exclusive domain of multi-national corporations and ad agencies. It’s how we act, talk, dress, travel, help, don’t help, decorate, etc. It’s what we choose to show and what we choose not to show.
Now all of this is probably self evident to most people. I’m not re-inventing the round, rolly thing here. But for something so prevalent and necessary to life, it’s odd so many people leave the concept of advertising on the back burner of their think ball. More importantly, it demonstrates that advertising, including print ads and commercials and such, has an inherent need for feedback. This suggests two things.
1.) In order for any kind of advertising to be successful, it has to engage people. The more equal the engagement the better. This is becoming more common, as we’ve seen ads trying to appeal to us on a level plane. Some are well intended, thought out, and… engaging! Others pretend to be and come across annoying, stupid, and pedantic.
2.) People have the ultimate say on what options are available to them. A perfect example of what happens when you don’t adhere to this is with the RIAA and its DRM doomed music.
Other companies are catching on though, hence the Leica doggy from Ryan’s previous post. Which brings me to the “Evil” Twin part of this article. Many companies and ad agencies are looking to street art for ideas and artists, which is ironic, because street art has been in a long battle with corprorate media over the right to display ad/art in public space. But street artists are much better at engaging their audiences, so companies are looking to them to help navigate the shifting seas of our antiquated producer/consumer economy. I wouldn’t doubt the idea or artist behind the Leica doggy also came out of the world of street art.
And so, for your further enjoyment and continued explorations in the topics discussed here, I’ll end this post with a link. See what else you can find there that looks familiar!