Virgin...Which World Are You?

Alright, this is not really a story, its more of an essay.

Sorry
*

The other day I was flipping through a magazine at the discount art supply store, the lines are always long with us crazy artists seeing how basically the only things we ever buy are food and art. The magazine, Tokion, had an awesome cover, so I snatched it up and skimmed through its pages. My eyes were drawn to a beautiful graphic, olive green with some technical looking shapes, and a random flock of birds traveling off the page. Written were the words "vive sin plan," live without a plan. My jaw dropped, I immediately fell in love with the piece, partially due to the fact that living without a plan is the only plan I go by. Frantically scanning the page for the artist's name, I looked toward the bottom right corner when, lo and behold, in a nice red square with a copyright symbol, were the words: Virgin Mobile.

Advertising has always been on my bad side, so much that if I take a liking to an ad, I will make a point out of not buying what it's trying to sell. So what are we to do when even the non-profit artists are being used to create ads for giant, multi-million dollar corporations? This made me wonder- should we applaud the efforts of corporations to become more artisting and making the cut throat world of economy a little more habitable, or should we reject them even more for deceitfully using our world to drag us deeper into theirs? Is it really trying to send a good message, like "live without a plan," or simply put more money into their backpockets? The line between art and profit is becomming less visible with every change of the channel and turn of the page. Adapting a quote from a book definitely on the art side of the line, are they using their ads to promote life, or are they using "life" to promote their ads? This goes not only for big buck corporations, but for nearly every aspect of our free-enterprise society. Everything from clothing, bands, shows, and even art is attempting to blur that line between art and profit, as it is more and more difficult every day to distinguish truth from hype, and real life from the "life" we are supposed to live according to culture, the media, and the economy.

Is it possible for us to merge the two contrasting worlds of art and profit into one, or is it fairy tale we are painting, or selling, to try and believe? After staring the Virgin Mobile ad down for several minutes I asked, "Which world is this living in?" And I've come to the conclusion that either the corporations are using roundabout ways to sell usout, or I'm reading too much into this.

I have a feeling its a mixture of the two.

[Edited on 29-3-2004 by John bull 1]

Yes it can take a look at the saatchi brothers or charles saatchi hes done it advertizeing and art as one in a way

Is see your point and that was very well written IMO; but sorry to say things are worse than you think.

All broadcast TV (for example) is a big advertisement. It's not art. They do it so that 5 minutes before and after the hour you see a George W Bush ad or a Jaguar or Beer Commercial. The only reason those magazines you like exist are as advertisement delivery vehicles. Don't get me started on Internet advertising.

I could go on but you get the point. I'm starting to hate everything. I hate being a consumer.

Art is powerful and this capitalist society is now starting to spend resources on it. I commend a company that uses good art in its ads. To me, art is an act of expression or a communication. That is what advertising is all about. There used to be two major art worlds, Fine and Commercial. The line is blurring because in this modern age the tools of the trade have brought commercial art out of the look of cheap and fast. Cheap and fast gets you so much more than it used to. Artists need to pay the bills, too. As an artist, I used to have an elitist attitude about art, and thought only fine art was good art. Now I realize good art can be anywhere and most of what I find in galleries is crap. I read a great book called "Art and Fear" that really opened my eyes about being an artist. If you are an artitst I highly recommend this book.

Scat... Put down the crack pipe mmmK? I dont think ive ever looked into advertising that much. I dont pay attention to it and it doesnt affect my judgements or influence what i buy.