MetaFilter posts tagged with advertising and art

Times Square > Art Square

divabat — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:51:21 -0800

Times Square > Art Square: "a very complex project with a simple goal: to turn all advertising on Times Square into art."

Comrade Draper, we have a new account from Acme Caviar.

grumblebee — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:23:47 -0800

Mad Men: Soviet Style. Beautiful advertising posters from the USSR.

Soundville

acb — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:54:23 -0800

Juan Cabral, the commercial maker behind the Sony Bravia bouncing ball ad has completed a new piece: this time, he and collaborators, including Múm, Richard Fearless (of Death In Vegas) and the people behind Sigur Rós' live concerts, transformed the Icelandic town of Sey∂isfjör∂ur into an ambient sound installation, placing speakers throughout the town, playing music (from folk to electronica to ambient orchestral) and filming the reactions of the locals as they went about their lives. The resulting short film, Soundville, is ostensibly an advertisement for Sony's audio products, but can stand on its own as an art installation.

19th century artistic printing

mediareport — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:41:44 -0800

Beautifully designed, quirky, colorful late 19th-century "artistic" and "gaslight" printing at Dick Sheaff's ephemera pages. [via, via] Info here. There's a book, too.

Kinetic Advertising

[user was fined for this post] — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:03:50 -0800

"The way all of these objects interact and just miss each other in the same environment, it's kind of building a machine out of organic movements." A timesculpture is part music video, part performance art, part kinetic sculpture, and part innovative use of computer and video technology. Its first application? Advertising, of course. Toshiba paid London ad agency Grey London £3million to create an ad for a new product line. 200 camcorders, 20TB of video data and 336 hours of processing time later, the first timesculpture was created. But despite Toshiba's rather breathless press release and the use of the word "sculpture," is it really a new form of art? Is it even new? Can something created for commercial purposes be art at all? Other examples of the technique might help answer these questions, but it seems there aren't any yet. Previous art in motion. Music by Canadian duo Crystal Castles.

The Decapitator

Partial Law — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:56:43 -0800

1. Photograph billboard.
2. Replace head with bloody stump.
3. Affix stump to original billboard.
4. Repeat as necessary.

Everybody here go BANG!

klangklangston — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:55:32 -0800

Gun for the whole family. A Scanning Around With Gene article about historic gun ads. More fun with Gene Gable: Cigarettes, diving, winter fonts, red white and blue, and so much more.

We're Gonna Have A TV Party Tonight

fandango_matt — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 13:33:17 -0800

Light Criticism is the newest project by Graffiti Research Lab and the Anti-Advertising Agency.

And now--a quick word from our sponsors!

hadjiboy — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 22:42:32 -0800

Advertising in India (thanks to this post by NickySkye) More ads here and here

The Ad Generator

sveskemus — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:59:13 -0800

The Ad Generator is a generative artwork that explores how advertising uses and manipulates language. What it actually does is that it randomizes words and structures from real advertising slogans and pairs them with related images from Flickr, generating fake ads on the fly.

Corporate Sacrilege

jonson — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 23:20:34 -0800

Dick Detzner's Corporate Sacrilege is a series of paintings substituting advertising icons for religious ones.

Te Amo

Miko — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:36:01 -0800

Cigar Box Labels are among the finest works of commercial art ever produced. Package designs proliferated during the 1800s, thanks to the development of the stone lithography technique. "Each label could involve a dozen highly skilled specialists,, take a month to create, and cost upwards of $6000.00 (in 1900 dollars) to produce." Images range from racy to rustic to romantic to racist, offering a glimpse into the changing popular fascinations of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Ben Frost Artwork

ColdChef — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 21:17:57 -0800

Ben Frost is a painter, performance artist and illustrator who currently lives in Australia. His work explores themes of alienation, dispossession, and perversity that exists behind the facade of contemporary western society. By subverting mainstream iconography from the advertising, entertainment and political spectrum he creates a visual and conceptual framework that is bold, confronting and often contraversial.

Happy Bright

edgeways — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:29:59 -0800

Plan59's Demoinc Tots and Deeply Disturbing Cusine: Plan59 has a bunch of overdone goodness (in a white bread sort of way) but this is the best. Link to their main page

Using fine-art images to promote movies

JPowers — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 20:22:26 -0800

Using fine-art images to promote movies: "But it was Mr. Kessell's "Florilegium" (or "collection of floral images") daguerrotypes that caught Mr. Palen's eye: each image is close-up of a surgical instrument, so poetically rendered that it seems almost organic. Some of the macabre implements resemble exotic flowers. One, from a distance, could be mistaken for the horns of a gazelle. "We were sort of blocked, and all the pieces fell into place once I saw that image," Mr. Palen explained. A deal was made to use that daguerreotype [to promote the upcoming Tarantino-produced film "Hostel"], which actually shows a surgical clamp. [The poster] now appears in theaters and on widespread promotions. [Side: direct WMV link of Tarantino spazing out while introducing "Hostel's" director Eli Roth at a festival.]

Hoo doggies, but is it art?

Robot Johnny — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 08:04:40 -0800

The world's most expensive photocopy. An untitled cowboy photograph by Richard Prince set a record last night for the most expensive photograph sold at auction, with a price of $1,248,000. The catch? It's a re-photograph of pre-existing Marlboro ad.

"Come on baby, buy my SUV"

PenguinBukkake — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 10:35:30 -0800

" Jim's ghost was in my ear, and I felt terrible". Like all top classic-rock franchises, The Doors can exploit a lucrative afterlife in television commercials. Offers keep coming in, such as the $15 million dangled by Cadillac last year to lease the song "Break On Through (to the Other Side)" to hawk its luxury SUVs. To the surprise of the corporation and the chagrin of his former bandmates, drummer John Densmore vetoed the idea. He said he did the same when Apple Computer called with a $4-million offer, and every time "some deodorant company wants to use 'Light My Fire.' "

Yellow is the new black.

fatllama — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 14:28:59 -0800

No logos project. Delete!, fettered capitalism in Vienna.

Giant Woman Licks Man

taz — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 04:50:31 -0800

Post No Bills. At the intersection of life and advertising one may unexpectedly find art, or at least humor. Henry Ho shines a light on it. (42 pages. Or view all thumbnails together)

60s pop posters

iconomy — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 10:06:53 -0800

Page after page of late 50s/early 60s pop posters, advertisements and more, designed by the studio of Lefor-Openo, which consisted of Marie-Claire Lefort and Marie-Francine Oppeneau. Via Papel Continuo

The Japanese Gallery of Psychiatric Ar

matteo — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 12:46:37 -0800

The Japanese Gallery of Psychiatric Art. Images from Japanese psychiatric medication advertisements: 1956-2003 (via Absent without leave)

Screw Yourself. Instantly Win.

casu marzu — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 12:47:59 -0800

The Database of Corporate Commands. A project of the Institute for Extremely Small Things, part of the ikatun collective of artists and technologists. [via languagelog]

Viral Chart

Pretty_Generic — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 12:48:48 -0800

The Viral Chart tracks British viral marketing videos.

les Français n'aiment pas le Publicité

Sticherbeast — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 07:42:51 -0800

SA VI GN AC. Welcome to the world of Raymond Savignac, the greatest poster artist of all time, and inventor of the little Bic man. Joyous, naughty, simple, elegant, and beautiful.

British Television Advertising Awards

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 10 Oct 2004 12:39:47 -0800

It's the best of advertising at this year's BTAA. Flash. Click BTAA Awards, Winners.