#culturespeaks | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

shelbymeyer131-blog · 7 years ago

Text

ESSAY I WROTE ON POSTMODERN ADS ( Images linked in paper)

_____

The Advertising Equivalent of Wearing Sunglasses Inside

It’s a little weird that when I started researching for this paper, when my brain was at its wit’s end with Fredrick Jameson, that I switched to reading a Thomas Pynchon novel. I was sitting in the same Los Angeles coffee shop where I’d read Less Than Zero last August; the same coffee shop across from the now-closed Tower Records, which had been decorated to look like it did in the late 80s. It looks legit, but behind the convincing facade is an empty shop. I wanted to take a break from postmodernism and was met with overwhelming postmodernism.

* * *

When I’m not reading postmodern novels, I’m trying my hardest to be a postmodern graphic designer. Postmodernism speaks to my soul; as much as it drives me crazy to research, it’s like an excuse to study stuff I actually care about in an serious context and still have it be valid. If it means I get to design book cover with a photo of traffic, Ralph Lauren ads, and 1960s computer graphics, then I’m happy to live in a postmodern world. There isn’t an official definition for postmodernism; the whole concept is pretty vague, and extremely controversial. The boiled down explanation consists of a fragmented reuse of existing imagery or ideas in a different cultural context, acknowledgement of medium, and less distinction between high and colloquial culture. Postmodernism is hallmarked by the existence of multiple yet coexisting identities or interpretations, and the realization that reality is a collage of things rather than one universal narrative. SPY magazine columnist Bruce Handy puts it best:

"It [postmodernism] can mean anything that's sort of old, but sort of new, a little bit ironic, or kind of self conscious-- like movies that steal bits from old movies, or photographs of the photographer. It's used in reference to creative endeavors that never had a modernist movement to begin with-- art forms such as music videos, rap songs, and panty-hose design. It's culturespeak shorthand for Stuff That's Cool in 1988.”

If I’m vain enough to claim I’m a postmodern designer, then I’m definitely vain enough to claim I’m a cool one too. Like postmodernism, “cool” is difficult to define because it’s applicable to a vast array of different contexts. My inclination is to list famous people (Keith Richards, James Dean, Debbie Harry, Jimi Hendrix, Kate Moss, et cetera, et cetera) but, while that seems to make perfect sense, it requires a bit more finesse of words. For something, or someone, to be cool, they must acknowledge a rule or cultural standard and deliberately subvert it. Specifically, a cool person understands what a rule means, deems it oppressive or wrong in some way, and decides that that particular rule no longer applies to them. In doing so, said cool person exhibits a certain confidence in their own judgement, deeming their opinion to be more correct than the established one. It’s important to note that the rules being broken aren’t THAT dangerous to other people (wearing all black is cool, murder is not) and that the actual break doesn’t stray too far from established.

It actually sounds a lot like the relationship between modernism and postmodernism. As David Harvey, in his book The Condition of Postmodernity: “We see postmodernism emerge as a full-blown though still incoherent movement out of the chrysalis of the anti-modern movement of the 1960s.” Postmodernism, knowing the strict rules of modernism, decided they no longer apply. Postmodernism is cool. I’m specifically interested in how this applies to advertisements; how the use of postmodern elements makes for cool ads.

The best place to start is with pastiche; it’s the most easily identifiable element of postmodernism, and one of my favorite things to see. It’s like an affectionate repurposing of a style or placing an existing style with its own context into a new one. It doesn’t modify the style to send a specific message, as done in parody, and it doesn’t necessarily intend to make the user think of it’s source. It’s like like unwrapping a present and reusing the wrapping paper, it can look the same from the outside, but the contents of the presents can be completely different.

Personally, I love when pastiche is used in advertising. The single most influential pieces of advertising, are the merchandise ads for Daft Punk’s 2013 album Random Access Memories. I’ve spent the past four years going on about how spectacular they are, using them as primary inspiration for multiple projects, including my conceptually driven sophomore studio capstone piece. I've admired the supposed realism of these ads, claiming that, in the right context, they’d be indeterminable from other advertisements from the 1970s. It’s true, they look like they could be found in old issues of Billboard or Circus. In the past, I’ve cited them as accurately depicting the style of that time period, but perhaps it isn’t. Pastiche is repurposing of a style not an time period. It isn’t the 70s being depicted, rather it’s the abstract "feeling" of the 70s (https://www.daftpunk.com/)

Fredric Jameson, in his paper Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, uses the film Body Heat to better explain what it that “feeling” is. The film is set in the early 80s; the costuming, props, and demeanor of the characters enforce that, but the essence of the film feels like a 1930s film noir. Jameson argues that accurately capturing a time period is not possible to accurately capture a historical time period in term, rather it is the essence of how that time felt that is portrayed. In the case of Body Heat, it’s 1930s-ness.

Random Access Memories (and its ad campaign) is still a piece of 2013 culture but in terms of feeling and style, it is from the 1970s. Rather than capturing how the 70s accurately were, these ads aim to capture the feeling of 1970s-ness. It’s more than just an allusion to that time period, the immersive pastiche completely repurposes the disco visual style in a new time period. The ads confidently represents a world that doesn’t exist, that can’t exist because it never existed in the first place.

Recontextualization alone isn’t what makes these ads cool. What makes them cool is the confidence to use a style that isn’t particularly revered in retrospect. I don’t think I’ve heard a style of music made fun of more than disco, and my first concert was KC and the Sunshine Band. Disco doesn’t get the musical respect it maybe deserves (as a visual style it isn’t much better off), and yet these ads don’t hold back. What makes them cool, in addition to being a visually seamless pastiche, is that they’re affectionally recreating a notoriously unpopular style. Rather than recreate something established as cool, the ads recreate a style that isn’t. They're daring and boldly ignoring the cultural status of disco. Confidence in that embrace makes the band seem more genuine and less reliant on wide acceptance. It makes them more likable, and the ads more compelling.

I love pastiche, but it doesn’t have a ton of depth. Honestly, postmodernism design, as a movement, isn’t exactly known for its depth. This means that what you see is what you get; there doesn’t have to be philosophical implications behind visual choices; an ad is often just an ad. Mass cultural critic Julian Stallabrass, argues that, beginning in the 1980s, ads started to be seen as a cultural art form, and there was less distinction between an advertisement and what it was trying to sell. This can result in reliance on the medium, in this case, the fact that it’s an advertisement. I’ve always been drawn to ads that announce their status as ads; it feels honest and sarcastic. There’s something attractive about a self referential ad that talks down to its viewer. M&C Saachti’s minimalist masterpiece for Ketel One is one of my favorite ads. (http://mcsaatchi-la.com/portfolio/dear-ketel-one-2/)

Its minimal black text, in Ketel One logo type, rests in the upper left segment of a stark white surface; the ad is doing little to connect with what it’s selling, and yet I’m completely inthralled because it’s ‘cool’. Visually speaking, the only notable connection to the product is the banded type face; the rest stays completely neutral. It feels effortless and aloof. It begins by directly addressing the viewer, announcing it’s ad, and immediately apologizing for it’s existence. Seemingly, Ketel One is completely transparent in it’s marketing strategy: stripping away the pretty visuals and fluffy copy, directly stating a message, and acknowledging that the viewer isn’t so easily fooled. It even goes so far as to apologize for ads being manipulative in the past. I was tempted to believe this ad wasn’t trying to trick me into wanting Ketel One, but I couldn’t shake the sarcastic tone I was getting from it. Perhaps it isn’t as direct as it seems

Sure, on the surface Ketel One is telling me “this is an advertisement” but, what I’d argue they’re actually saying is “Yeah, we’re advertising because so and so executive says we need to, but we really shouldn’t have to. You should already know that Ketel One is great, and if you don’t already drink it, well, you’re the loser.” Maybe not in those exact words, but that’s certainly the tone I get. The goal isn’t genuine transparency, rather it’s using transparency to distance itself from how things are typically marketed. Rather than highlighting the positive aspects of the product and incising the viewer to buy it, this ad completely ignores this audience. It seems to confidently announce that Ketel One is great, regardless to if the viewer likes it or not. The ad dares the viewer to ignore it, the opposite of what ads are supposed to do. That’s what makes it cool, the confidence to be ambivalent toward the audience. It acknowledges that ads are supposed to be manipulative, blatantly deciding not to fall into those trends, and, interestingly, that makes the product more desirable. The viewers wants to buy Ketel One, not because it will make their life better, not because celebrities are drinking it, but because it makes them feel like they’re missing out on something they absolutely shouldn’t be missing out on. It piques interest in the product, without acknowledging any need for the viewer.

If Ketel One ignores the viewer through its self reference, Moschino outright insults them. If you don’t know, Moschino is a ridiculous Italian high-fashion house that often uses recognizable brands, like SpongeBob or McDonalds, in their designs. In this particular ad a photo of an expansive partly cloudy sky covers three quarters of the spread. Over the clouds reads in serifed text “this is an advertisement!” and below, in italicized script font “Couture!” The bottom quarter is filled with “MOSCHINO” in large black text. Visually, there isn’t anything denoting that Moschino is a fashion company. Honestly it feels very cliché. The copy appears to be self declarative and neutral but, upon closer inspection, is a direct insult. It's literally screaming "couture" at the viewer, as if to say “you wouldn’t know couture if it slapped you in the face, so here let me help you, MOSCHINO IS HIGH FASHION.” (http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/24523/1/cult-vault-moschino-s-rebellious-90s-ads)

Similarly to Ketel One, the strategy should push the viewer away, but since it’s confidently subverting established marketing techniques it seems more appealing. Seemingly, Moschino doesn’t care if it alienates some viewers, they don’t care about what they’re supposed to do.

Additionally, the cloud imagery feels more suited to the back of a 90s country CD or an Old Navy ad; it definitely doesn’t fit with standard high fashion imagery. Including both fancy and casual elements illustrate the postmodern concept of fragmentation. Rather than there being only one reality, the world is made up of tons of pieces. This made embracing more than one identity acceptable, and break down of the distinction between high and low culture. Fragmentation makes it acceptable that my parents to be yuppie deadheads, or me using drugstore eyeliner and $60 mascara. Moschino is using a cliché colloquial image of clouds and pairing it with they’re identity as a haute couture fashion company.

Even more directly than Moschino’s clouds, is Gucci’s meme culture. Unlike Moschino, Gucci aligns more strictly with high fashion culture, and yet their new line of watches are being marketed with meme imagery and informal text. One of the more recognizable ads, created by Instagram artist Derek Lucas, alludes to a still image from the children’s TV show Arthur. The original image of a clenched fist is often paired with situational text as a visualization of frustration. In the case of Gucci, the image is a photo recreation of the popular image with a Gucci watch on the wrist. The photo is accompanied by the phrase “When your girl doesn’t notice your new watch.” Other than the watch being in the ad, there is no call back to Gucci specifically, the name isn’t present at all. It’s supposed to look like a meme. (http://www.highsnobiety.com/2017/03/17/gucci-fashion-memes/)

Memes are made very quickly, and are not expertly planned before; unlike fashion, which takes months to prepare and thought about seasons in advance. They’re two extremely different worlds, and while the allusion could be seen as bridging the gap between a high fashion house and internet culture to expand the buying market; I don’t think that’s the case, especially since the watch pictured costs $850. Rather, I’d argue, it’s expanding the brand identity to include both expensive watches and dinky internet memes. It’s cool because Gucci is being inclusive of a style that it, historically, shouldn’t be inclusive of; it makes it feel like Gucci is purposely going against trends, but it somehow feels cringe inducing and isn’t very well liked. Objectively this is a cool ad, but it also feels like they spent a lot of money to make it look like they didn’t spend a lot of money.

A more likable example is the fantastic M&C Saatchi creations for the Getty Center in Los Angeles. These ads feature medieval, classical, and renaissance paintings paired with exploitative tabloid headlines. For examples, one highlights the piece Bathsheba Bathing, where a nude woman stands in a pool while a man in a window stares at her. Surrounding the painting, in all caps, is the phrase “’He just stood there staring at my bits!’ Full frontal seductress tells all in royal peeping tom scandal.” on an expressive red background. (https://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/getty-center-creepy-king-9582005/)

The strategy could be seen as making the museum feel more inclusive, mixing highly revered paintings with pulp magazine headlines, but I don’t think that’s the case. Instead, it’s attempting to make a stuffy museum in Brentwood, California (the heart of wealthy, scenic LA) feel more lively and scandalous. It’s taking the modernist sacredness of the museum and dirtying it up; making the rules no longer applicable. Using low culture to market an upscale museum, makes them seem cooler. It seemingly allows the viewer to notice the more exploitative elements of the paintings, something that shatters the strict rules typically held by art critics and museum connoisseurs. That breaking of identity rules falls in the category of ‘cool,’ and, since it doesn’t stray THAT far from the established, is also a successful rebrand of the Getty.

In general, I think that postmodern advertising is a positive trend, something that breaks away from the established is, to me at least, more likable. In the same way Chuck Klosterman claims that the villains are more compelling because of their high regard for themselves and bravado, cool ads can make what’s being advertised more attractive. I’d rather see subversive and style heavy marketing than a paragraph explaining why a product will make my life better. The opportunity to repurpose any style in any context is liberating, and the results look better on the wall than earlier ads. The rebellious spirit of postmodernism advertising is not only inspirational, but completely cool.

0 notes