Advertising is an Art

I have read a book which is worth to read, called "The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR". It isn't same with the other academic books, the way authors write is witty and interesting, it makes me feel like reading a story rather than academic article. This is the confession I wanted to make before starting this post, I strongly recommend you to have a look at least.

Concerning about the "No Pain, No Gain" working philosophy of advertisers today, I have a thought toward this issue after reading the book. The reason of utilizing this propaganda because advertising is died, and this approach brings this dead advertising come back to life.

It is just simple as the common sense of physiological reaction. Lets imagine that someone keep slapping your face lightly, you might feel uncomfortable in the beginning, but you would get used to the strength slowly. This is the situation of advertising today, compared to the status of advertising after World War II, advertising is no longer fresh and exciting. From here we know that the volume of advertising message is inversely proposition against the effectiveness of advertising. For example, the television commercial we could see before watching our selected video in youtube, we always tend to press 'skip' in order to tune out the advertising. Undoubtedly, it shows that advertising has lost its functional purpose, and thus become an art form.

What is an art? This question is very subjective indeed. Art can be defined as the various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, sculpture, and dance. These branches have a similarity which is they have no functional purpose in market field nowadays, same as what advertising does. This is the reason why we always try to avoid advertising in our daily life, this communication technique loses its functional purpose, hence it turns into art form. Marshall Mcluhan said 'Advertising is the greatest art form of 20th century.

As a design student, I always have a question when I get involved in this field, "Is the purpose of advertising winning award?" This book give me an answer, "Yes, it is" Advertising agency wins an award, does not mean it can increase the sale of brand. Advertising has no connection to sales. In fact, advertising icon seldom causes brand to become famous, but famous brand causes advertising icon to become famous.

Back to the physiological reaction, this is what the generic role of advertising nowadays. "No Pain, No Gain" propaganda, however, takes a great part in this aspect, or I should call it as 'risen up' advertising. It gives a PUNCH to people for conveying the advertising message. In term of creativity value, it is fresh and original method because nobody has done before that. This punch would be very painful, but I am not sure about the 'gain' advertisement makers look for.

Resources:
Ries, A. & Ries, L. (2002) The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR. United States: HarperCollins. pp. 1-79.