Saturday 04 July 2009
Through the Looking Glass: The Art of Ads and Brands
Written by Sergio Burns
Monday, 16 June 2008 00:00
It occurred to me while walking in Edinburgh that art is all around us: in architecture, in the clothes we wear and the cars we drive but, more especially, in the millions of images and copy of all the advertisements and brands that clutter our world. There is a great and fascinating cultural monolith of symbols, signs, logos and blurb which rush in on us from our streets, televisions, reading material, the internet and mobile phones.
We are what we believe we decide to wear, drive, drink, listen to, while simultaneously being sold this dream of 'ourselves' by clever marketing people. It's like staring into the looking glass from both sides. It's like being in a room full of two-way mirrors (with apologies to Jimi Hendrix).
"People buy goods because of what they mean, not because of what they do," says Dr Michael Solomon of Auburn University, Alabama. "The product imagery that surrounds us, from Nike to Gucci, Ford to BMW, MTV Europe to Vogue, form 'consumption communities' that define who we are - and who we want to be. Indeed, the strategic goal of many firms is not to build market share - it is to build share of mind."
In the Doric Bar in Market Street, I witness a myriad of styles and a titanic struggle of competing cultures, nicely chiming with such features as age, personality and status. The girl with the bright purple hair, face piercings and dark garb and her equally striking boyfriend - electrified jet black hair - are young, Gothlike and probably students. The gentleman at the bar in the pin stripe suit and carrying a brown, leather brief case by Pierre Cardin, a middle-aged professional (lawyer, civil servant), I imagine.
The people who create ads and organise marketing campaigns for transnational corporations undoubtedly take cognisance of such differences. They astutely understand that a large chunk of our self-construction and world view - Goth or professional - is reflected in how we consume: that is, how we interact with, interpret and make sense of ads and brands, what they say to us, and what, in turn, that says about us.
"...in many cases advertisers are like anthropologists," Antonio Lopez, Media Producer with New York based World Bridger Media, explained. "They do ethnographic studies and psychological profiling. In the case of cool hunting, marketers have cultural spies who search for cultural trends that can be quickly turned around..."
Advertisers have created many ingenuous ways of gaining an insight into 'what we want' and perhaps, more importantly, how to reach us. For ads and brands merchants it's 'the public gets what the public wants and we'll decide' motto.
For example, and as Antonio Lopez explains in his education material, sex, fear and humour are the most common marketing tools used by ads people to identify with the target audience. Cute hooks such as children, animals and family situations are also utilised, as are celebrity endorsements and hype (overbloated propaganda regarding a product or brand). The list of devices and sleight of hand employed is almost endless. Anything from camera angles to carefully constructed copy to accompany psychologically considered visuals are all used to engage with customers.
"Ads seek to bypass the rational mind through the use of symbols that generate quick emotional reactions," Antonio told me. "They appeal entirely to the irrational. I like to think of advertising as corporations dreaming your mind."
Later, as I sat in the cafe Florentin in St Giles Street checking my notes, I was struck by how awesome the image produced by Antonio's line 'Corporations dreaming your mind' was. This also resonated with what Dr Solomon had said about coporations not building share of the market but that their 'strategic goal...is to build share of mind'.
"Ads are there to build mindshare," Antonio continued. "They usually have nothing to do with the product, but rather the corporate brand and its logo. This is to boost the value of the brand's stock value. The ad tries to wink and flatter the consumer by pretending to identify with his or her needs."
Is he saying that the ads people have gained access to our minds and are squatting in there without us realising? That individuals are programmed via urban ads, television, the internet, various publications or our mobile phones to simply find the nearest shopping mall and purchase items we don't really need? Presumably we do this in a Doctor Who Dalekesque voice: "I must have Levi jeans, Coca Cola, a Nokia phone..I must have Timberland boots, Philadelphia low fat cheese...for...erm...my diet, The Green Food Start-Up (Lose Six Stone a Week!) as advertised by..." Or is that too simple?
Every day we are subjected to a whole barrage of ad and brand symbols, telling us something about how our lives could be so much better and enhanced if only we possessed their product. From the psychedlic landscapes of Volkswagen driving to the magic numbers of Orange mobile systems. From the 'Just Do It' culture of Nike to the 'Impossible Is Nothing' of Adidas, to the Honda corporation and its 'Power Of Dreams'. From sex on the beach perfumes to the intellectual smartness and middle-class mores of Parisien lovers plugging a compact little motor car, ad personnel are trying to grab us and convince us that this is 'you' and that, in fact,you need their product to be 'you’.
And me? I am wearing a blue 'Paul Smith' shirt, Zantos jeans (cheap, grungy and black) and my adorable, chrysalitic Caterpillar boots. As I sit and watch the sunset falling over Edinburgh castle, I find myself wondering: what the hell does that say about me?
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