Ad As Art

Moving away from the idea of memory as commodity, I wanted to touch on our discussion about advertising from Tuesday. I believe it was Chris who pointed out that the influx of advertising surrounding us on a daily basis has put him into a sort of hypnotic or comatose state, although he also shared with us that he had a sort of aversion to advertising so palpable that he would go out of his way to avoid being inundated with such images (for instance, looking at the ceiling while at a urinal that has an ad at eye-level). I identified with this phenomena and realized, during our discussion, that I have become so "hypnotized" or acclimated to this so-called "ad economy" that I barely manage to recognize it at all, much less form opinons about it (and found that, in class, I was shocked that I was so aware of this ad culture and yet had little to comment about on it).

I was on my way to a concert in Boulder with a friend this past weekend and, on the way, commented that there seemed to be very few streetlights along the way. It seemed that very little was interfering with my panoramic windshield view of the silver-topped mountains, black slopes, and rolling lawns, and I felt a sort of thought-freedom that is rare to stumble upon, even when driving (where I seem to be most in my "element"). During class, I began to wonder if any of that had to do with the fact that not only were there no streetlights, but there were no bulletin boards on that drive in to Boulder. Perhaps the stark nakedness of the landscape was so startling to me because I am so accustomed to nautre as a sort of backdrop for a mural of winking billboards, sexed up mock-ups of women posted wall-to-wall, and symbols begging me to buy.

As McLuhan points out in "The Galaxy Reconfigured," "it is necessary to understand the power and thurst of technologies to isolate the senses and thus to hypnotize society. The formula for hypnosis is 'one sense at a time.'" However, in today's mutlimedia world, it seems that the hypnosis comes from a sort of consistent barrage of all the senses. On my way to work, for example, one billboard will be visually compelling me to support the Denver Broncos, the ad on the radio will be orally convincing me to visit Target tomorrow, and the nasty smell of the McDonald's as I drive by is trying (however unsuccessfully) to lure me in with the scent of freshly greased fries. It seems that some marketing geniuses have begun to realize this conundrum, and subliminal advertising has become popular. Often, we are so used to conventional advertising that we don't recognize this new form, where product placement, art, and urban design reflect advertising in a way that doesn't require hypnosis, but simply and seamlessly incorporates ads into our lives without much opinion, realization, or care on our part. However, McLuhan's rearview mirror effect could be in place here, and the idea of integrated advertising is still so taboo in our overstimulated culture that we are not yet ready to truly comment on it.

Despite all of this negative talk of advertising, I continue to believe in its power as both art and an art form. Not only have advertisments become a platform for the democritizaiton of art, but they have become an art form in their own right, where the attention structure of society is the measure of response and the art itself is aware of its new double purpose.