Surrealism in Advertising - Analysis - OUCA401

This advert has notions of surrealism as it relates to René Magritte. Magritte’s work often portrayed a blue sky and white clouds, which is featured in both the canvas painting and the background. Having the sky feature both in the painting and the canvas, as if the painting is simultaneously on the canvas and in the background, manipulates our perceptions, and also refers to one of Magrittes own paintings, ‘The Fair Captive’. Moreover, it features Magritte’s ‘The Son of Man’, as a service station attendant, with his head being replaced with an hour glass (instead of the original apple) - this refers to the Magritte’s common theme of displacement.  A game of chess also features, with the trees (environment) beating the oil industry. Moreover, it shows a bottled oil tanker, which suggest that due to the car having a low consumption, it will pollute less.

This surrealist advert is showing that the new Polo BlueMotion runs on very little gas, which is good for the environment), and therefore the service station attendant is waiting a long time to refill the tank, as shown with the hourglass, and the spider coming out of the nozzle. 

Magritte’s use of juxtaposition is very strong here, with unusual objects being put together, which would be unexpected in conventional art/ adverts. This use of surrealism makes people think about the advert - what message is it trying to convey? Thus, this surrealist advert is memorable and a discussion point. The copy, ‘absurdly low consumption’, also refers to surrealism. Upon looking at the advert, the juxtapositions make it different, disruptive and irrational. 

Another of Polo’s adverts refers to surrealism, specifically the work of surrealist artist Salvador Dali, who played on optical illusions and being in a dream-like state.  This advert relates to his famous melting clocks artwork (The Persistence of Memory). It highlights that due to the cars low oil consumption, the oil industry will be harmed, as shown with the melting oil meter. This advert also has connotations of Magritte, with the white cloud in the shape of an oil can, which appears to be fading away.

Both of these adverts have been influenced by Surrealism, and therefore have also been influenced and affected by the work of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Freud wrote about dreams, hallucinations and the subconscious in his book, ‘Interpretation of Dreams’. 

References

'The problem of meaning' - Workshop 4
www.surrealists.co.uk
Google Images