Art and Copy

So me and my lovely friend went to see a movie as part of the Sydney Film Festival today, and watched a film about the advertising industry. The movie was part history lesson, on how the industry got to where it is today, part social analysis of the profound effect of advertising on modern culture, and part personal stories of how the most influential creative forces behind the ads and changed the way we live.

There were some pretty awesome vintage ads shown in the movie:

One point that was discussed in the movie particularly resonated with me. This advertisement was shown:

The ad was revolutionary at the time it was made because up to that point, all ads were made to sell a product based on design or functionality. This ad barely mentions the product. It instead tells a story with a particular kind of humour. Budweisser is then no longer a beer, it becomes badge for all those who subscribe to this kind of  humour.

Overall I thought it was a pretty good film, not only was it insightful, funny, immensely charming, it was also the perfect advertisement for the industry. I left the cinema with the unyielding urge to sell something.

This entry was written by admin, posted on June 15, 2009 at 12:48 pm, filed under Blueprints, Moving Pictures and tagged , , , , . Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.



‘If you can’t advertise yourself, you can’t advertise anything.’

Fei suggested I watch a documentary on SBS on 'mad men', a label used to describe advertising pioneers in the early 90s (edit: came from men who worked on Madison Ave in New York, where all the world's biggest ad agencies are - Fei)  . The documentary was to be followed by a drama series based on the same era/ context next week. The particular focus was on a gentleman by the name of David Ogilvy. Very interesting insight; had I've seen this earlier, I might've pursued that marketing major!

The Hathaway Man; Selling a Simple Shirt using an Eye Patch

The Hathaway Man; Selling a Simple Shirt using an Eye Patch

  • Research: Coming, as he did, from a background in research, he never underestimated its importance in advertising. In fact, in 1952, when he opened his own agency, he billed himself as Research Director.
  • Professional discipline: "I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the chaos of ignorance." He codified knowledge into slide and film presentations he called Magic Lanterns. He also instituted several training programs for young advertising professionals.
  • Creative brilliance: A strong emphasis on the "BIG IDEA."
  • Results for clients: "In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create."

Extract taken from David Ogilvy's wikipedia entry.

Entrepreneurship, from all levels, whether it's advertising, selling, logistics, resources: is a craft.

This entry was written by Jackson Chew, posted on April 9, 2009 at 8:01 pm, filed under Blueprints and tagged , , , , . Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.