Context of Practice 1 - Lecture 4 - What is Research?

• Process = more important than outcome.
• 'Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought' - Albert Szent-Gyorgy.

Approaches to Ideas

• Stimulated approach - inspiration from surroundings, media, libraries etc. Development of analogies.
• Systematic approach - constantly changing possibilities - systematically working through an approach.
• Intuitive approach - development of thought process - many occur spontaneously.

Research - process of finding facts - facts lead to knowledge. Finding out answers to questions such as 'why' 'how' and 'what if?'

• Primary research - developed + collected for a specific end use. Collection of that does not yet exist.
• Secondary research - data that has already been collected.
• Quantitative research - facts, figures - measurable data - objective.
• Qualitative research - peoples behaviour, beliefs, attitudes - non-numerical data.

Information = adding knowledge to the person receiving it. Should be sufficient, competent, relevant and useful. 

1950s and 1960s Creative Advertising - OUCA401

Background

-40s – 50s art was influenced by pro and inter war movements.

-There was a new art form which was created by the Berlin Dada group. Dada acted against middle class respectability.

-Erwin Blumenfield was a photographer who worked with advertisers. He was similar to Dada in the sense that he also had an anti-rationalist stance.

-John Hegarty was influenced by Dada as he moved away from conventionalism.

- After the war, NY boomed – people very affluent – 1949 – 59 total advertising spend doubled from £5billion to £11billion. 

-The UK, however, was not as affluent. The Labour party had spent £8mn on the war which left the country poor and using ration books.

-TVs flourish - households with a TV increased from 10% 1950 to 90% 1960 – helped the advertising industry as gave a new medium.

Unpopular Advertising 

-In the 1950s, advertising had a ‘bad name’. This was due to factors including the belief that it was an unethical profession, the clients created the content and that it was too unregulated. Moreover, adverts tended to be unpopular e.g. Anacin adverts were boring and repetitive.

-Psychologists and creatives worked in agencies, but creatives worked more intuitively.

Fixing the Problems

-To try and tackle these problems, Rosser Reeves (chair of Ted Bates & Co) came up with a ‘formula’ to improve the advertisements. Consequently, Anacin generated more profit in 7yrs than Gone With The Wind did in 50 years.(Reeves inspired Mad  Men character Don Draper).

-David Oglivy also helped the advertising industry – he focused on research and had a constant theme of Englishness/ high-class throughout the adverts. His agency focused on rules and structure rather than creativity – clients such as Shell and the Lever Brothers approved of this.

-Bill Bernbach – caused the CREATIVE REVOLUTION -he got rid of the hierarchy in agencies (Account Executives, Copywriters and then Art Directors). He made Copywriters and Art Directors work as a team. He emphasised creativity and original ideas (different to Reeves strategy and Oglivy’s non-creative stance). In 1935, when Grover Whalen organised The New York World Fair (1939), Bernbach went with him.

-In 1940, Bernbach worked at Weintraub agency, alongside art director Paul Rand (as a team). Bernbach also worked at Grey agency, however after his letter of emphasising the need to work creatively got ignored by management, he started his own company called DDB.

-DDB incorporated parts from Reeves and Oglivy.



References
Workshop 5 - Creative Revolution 50s + 60s 

Context of Practice 1 - Lecture 3 - Chronologies 1: Type - Production + Distribution

Mesopotamia - 3200 BCE- origin of type

First true alphabet = Greek alphabet (pictures of sounds). Latin was the development of Greek Alphabet. 

1450 - Johannes Gutenberg - invented printing press- first thing he printed was the Bible

1870 - William Foster - influence on need for type - introduced the Education Act of 1870 - making education compulsory - so more learnt how to read and write - used to be just for higher classes. Need for mass produced literature.

1919 - Walter Gropius - looked at difference between design of letter and function of letter

1957 - Max Miedinger - created Helvetica - neutral font - birth of modern typefaces. Born out of Bauhaus. Clear, concise, versatile font.

1982 - Ariel - developed by Microsoft - released 25 years after Helvetica - both similar to each other.

1990 - Steve Jobs - Apple Macintosh - less than $1,000 - more affordable to people. Brought in the ‘mouse’ - can design type digitally.

1994 - Vincent Connare - designer of Comic Sans MS. He worked for Microsoft. 

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

An Advert with mythological connotations - OUCA401

Skittles Advert - Midas Touch

This advert features a man who turns everything he touches into Skittles, including humans. This advert is humorous and clever, however also links with the Greek myth surrounding King Midas. King Midas had the ability to turn everything he touched into gold, a relation to the man turning everything into skittles. The advert and the myth share another similarity, with the subject of children. In the advert, the man complains about not being able to hold his newborn child, and in the myth, Midas mistakenly hugs his daughter, and consequently she turns into gold.

Evaluation of Mary Wells - OUCA401

Mary Wells had a revolutionary part in Advertising; being the founding president of Wells Rich Greene and being the first female CEO of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Wells began as a copywriter of McKelvey’s Department Store, and then moved on to working in the advertising department at Macy’s. In 1957, she joined Doyle Dane Bernbach, where she created her first famous advertising image. 

Wells shined when she worked for Jack Tinker & Partners, creating famous campaigns such as ‘Plop, plop, fizz fizz’ for Alka-Seltzer. The company had been unpopular as people tended to associate its products with overeating, but Wells completely changed that. 

Some of her most famous work was for Braniff Airways. When Wells was a child she took theatre lessons, and it was with Braniff Airways that she first incorporated her theatre knowledge into advertising. She ended the ‘plain plane’. She made the planes and uniforms colourful and created the ‘The Air Strip’ which drew customers in, especially from the baby boomer generation.

In 1967 she, and two of her associates, opened up their own company, of which she was the president of. It was called Wells Rich Greene. Her experience in theatre helped bring a dramatic flair to her commercials. By using her drama knowledge in her work, it set her company apart from all the others as they related better to their clients. 

“Mary really influenced how promotion and product changes were part of the role of an advertising agency.” - Charlie Moss

“Of course, I’m a legend. But it’s not because of any great gift I have. It’s because I’m a risk taker.” - Mary Wells, 2002 

Resources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3_aNtQFsLk 

'Art and Copy' - documentary - 2009 - directed by Doug Pray

http://www.adweek.com/sa-article/lifetime-achievement-mary-wells-131861

http://adage.com/article/adage-encyclopedia/history-1960s/98702/

http://adage.com/article/special-report-the-advertising-century/mary-wells-lawrence/140198/

http://facstaff.elon.edu/gibson/COM322/Written/ResearchPaperFiles/MaryWellsLawrence.pdf 

Context of Practice 1 - Lecture 2 - A 20,000 year non-linear history of the image

• There is a belief that visual communication started in the Lascaux caves (France). There are drawings on the cave walls which show signs of them attempting to communicate with their Gods/Spirits. Some of the drawings are merely markings, although one philosopher has suggested they represent hallucination dots.

• 21st Century, Twombly - there are markings on giant paintings (similar to the ones in the Lascaux caves). 

• 'Magicians of the Earth' is an exhibition which attempts to make links between ancient and modern art. It accuses the West of cultural appropriation. 

• Mona Lisa by Leonardo de Vinci - reproduced onto material objects - available to the masses - not just one gallery which therefore has restricted viewing. Marcel Duchamp reproduced Mona Lisa but with a beard and moustache - he named it L.H.O.O.Q.  In 2013 Banksy portrayed Mona Lisa as an Islamic extremist ( Mona Lisa Mujahideen), through graffiti street art which is available for all. 

• Following the revolution, Russia was the cultural leader of the world. But when Stalin got into power, he banned progressive art work, claiming it was not understandable for the common man - instead art became simple like 'Roses for Stalin' (1994- Vladimirski). The USA saw this as suppressing people and so therefore they encouraged abstract artists like Jackson Pollock.

• Shephard Fairey, in 2008, created a famous Obama poster supporting his campaign. But in 2011 he manipulated his own work to show America/Obama negatively. It became a symbol of faceless anarchy - an iconic image of solidarity in protest.

• Pictures have the ability to change history - the photos of the Atomic Bomb aftermath made America pull out of the Vietnam War.