Most people know that Venice has long been threatened by chronic flooding, but in recent years the Queen of the Adriatic has faced a rising tide of a different sort:
advertising.
From the
Doge's Palace to
St. Mark's Square to the bittersweet
Bridge of Sighs -- named for the grief its splendid views once inspired in crossing death row prisoners -- immense billboards
lit late into the night now mar the city's most treasured places.
Allegedly built to cover the cost of restoration work in the face of government cutbacks, the ads have brought in around $600,000 per year since 2008 -- a fraction of the shortfall -- and show no sign of going away any time soon. Their presence prompted a consortium of the world's leading cultural experts led by the
Venice in Peril Fund to air
an open letter demanding the city government put a stop to the placards that "hit you in the eye and ruin your experience of one of the most beautiful creations of humankind." Mayor Giorgio Orsoni, for one, was not moved, saying last year "If people want to see the building
they should go home and look at a picture of it in a book."
posted by Rhaomi
on Oct 4, 2011 -
59 comments
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.
[more inside]
posted by acb
on Oct 12, 2009 -
17 comments
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.
posted by sveskemus
on Jan 24, 2007 -
53 comments
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.]
posted by JPowers
on Jan 4, 2006 -
12 comments
" 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.' "
posted by PenguinBukkake
on Oct 5, 2005 -
119 comments
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
posted by iconomy
on Jun 29, 2005 -
6 comments
Retrolounge is a compendium of the next new thing in design, art, architecture and fashion. I kid! Truly, go-go boots make me swoon.
posted by pedantic
on Aug 12, 2003 -
7 comments
You probably remember him best for his famous
green devil, tempting you with the esoteric delight of evil absinthe
*, or the familiar image of the jester pushing the pleasures of
Bitter Campari. Called by some the "father of the modern poster", and even the "
father of advertising", Italian-born
Leonetto Cappiello created over 1,000 memorable posters during his 40-year career in belle-epoque and fin-de-siecle Paris, and a quick look at a
collection of his work quickly reminds us how enduring both his images and his basic concepts have been.
(more...)
posted by taz
on Nov 4, 2002 -
15 comments
