Re: Commercialism and art

Torbjoern Caspersen (Torbjoern.Caspersen@ark.unit.no)
Fri, 8 Sep 1995 16:58:49 +0100

> >From my experience, there's shift in commericals happening right now. (I
> can only speak for Norwegian advertising, but much of it is of american
> origin). It seems that commercials are being separated from product. As
> noone believes you if you claim your product to be 'the worlds best'
> anyhow, why not get it asociated with something positive? One of the recent
> Levi's tv/movie commercials is a good example of this. This is where the
> whole thing is a short movie about a boy/girl (two versions) buying condoms
> and later on comes around to get the son/daughter of the shop owner. It has
> very little to do with product and very much to do with entertainment.
> Levi's gives us something interesting/amusing, which in turn is connected
> to their product.
>
>Yes, now that you mention it I've noticed this sort of thing as well.
>And I'll tell you what happens, for my own part. I remember the
>stories, and completely forget what the product is! I've had this
>happen on many, many occasions. Are other people just better at
>retaining "weak associations" than I am?

My experience is that they tend to use stills or catch-phrases from
commercials like that in the store, so when you're there, with your money,
your memory is refreshed. (They haven't been able to trick me yet, but then
again, I don't have all that much money :)

> Commercial art is a tricky notion. On one hand you have a lot of extremely
> professional craftmanship, on the other you have commercial motivation. I
> find ads interesting signs of what's the trend in society, perhaps more
> than 'normal' art. I read an article on how commercials are targetet at
> different nations. It said that Germans responded best to authority and
> knowledge, like scientist telling _why_ the product is superior.
>
> In the US,
> happiness and nationalpride sells (weak selfesteem with economical
> problems?),
>
>That's the Republican "family values," "common man" bullshit rhetoric
>at work. :-) It's definitely a big segment of our advertizing,
>especially in these somewhat conservative times. But really, I'd say
>most products in the USA are sold with sex.
>
>I've also noticed an upswing of "military" advertizing, where a
>product is associated with troops blowing bugles and such. Another
>sign of the conservative times.

Are they selling notion of the 'strong, proud country', ready to defend
itself agains (fill in favorite enemy here)agression?

> Norway and England respons best to ironical
> and 'honest' ads, while in France, sex is a real boost. (You'll have to
> take this with a pinch of salt, it was printed in a norwegian newpaper, and
> naturally, norway comes out good)
>
>I'm sorry, I just have to ask... forgive me, this has been a running
>gag in my house for the last 15 years.
>
>What do you think of Mrs. Olson? You know, Folger's coffee, back in
>the 70's? Or did you never see it... USA advertizers might not have
>been stupid enough to show such a thing in Norway, but that would be
>giving them a _huge_ benefit of the doubt. :-)
>
>Norway! That sparkling land of coffee....
>
>Cheers,
>Brandon

I haven't heard of it, nor seen it, or even heard of Folger's coffee.
You'll have to explain this to me.
You might not know that TV commercials are a new thing in Norway, we've
only had it for about 5 years. Even now, the commercials are _between_
shows, never in them. Social-democracy has it definitive brigth moments.

-----------------------------------------
Torbjoern Caspersen casper@due.unit.no
http://www.stud.unit.no/~casper/
Student of Architecture
at the Norwegian faculty of technology, NTH, Trondheim.