Opinion
Every Advertising Cliché in One Video
Oh, generic, you are so meh … but what diversity of skin colors!
Advertising
Opinion
A Fusion of Facebook, Advertising, and Design Redefines the Creepy Birthday Hug
In what can be optimistically described as a case of something lost in cultural translation, Brazil's Outback Steakhouse franchise had their American-owned ad agency design an anthropomorphized chair that "hugs" you when you are wished a happy birthday via Facebook. Yes, This is The Way We Live Toda
Opinion
Form Is Function: Billboards Offer a Place to Rest or Escape the Rain
Some ideas are so simple it's kind of crazy they haven't been thought of before, especially given the constant exhaustion of creativity in advertising. But these billboards from IBM — which act as ramps, benches, or rain shelters — represent a particular triumph of form and function.
Opinion
This Van Gogh Museum Cafe Ad Is Hilarious
From the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam comes this fantastic advertisement for their cafe. Do you get the joke? The quietly brilliant ad pictures a single coffee cup on a saucer, perfectly pristine except for the fact that its handle has been broken off.
Opinion
A New, Even More Graphic Anti-Islamic Subway Ad
Remember that subway poster that compared Muslims to savages and called for supporting Israel in order to "defeat Jihad"? The group behind that sloganeering, the American Defense Freedom Initiative (AFDI), is back with a second, even more inflammatory ad that the MTA is explicitly disavowing.
Interview
Click on My Face, It's Art
Artist Jesus Benavente has launched "Oh Hey. Whats Going On?" (2012) as an online ad, which is "about wanting to be something greater, but the realities of life preventing it from happening."
Opinion
When Advertising Follows Art
Sometimes advertising follows art, and this is one of those times. Presenting Doug Aitkens' "Migration" (2008) and a very recent commercial for Residence Inn (2012).
Art
Seeing Through the Crowds at the 2011 Venice Biennale Part II: The Arsenale
The Arsenale and its Corderie (Rope Walk) compose the remainder of the curatorial effort of the Biennale’s director. It is the sprawling nasty sibling of the Padiglione Centrale, and is somewhat of a chore to tackle. The entire layout of the Arsenale this year feels disjointed. On a whole, I felt li
Opinion
Advertisers Clone the Work of Liu Bolin
PHILADELPHIA — Unlike too many pop artists, Chinese artist Liu Bolin has managed to retain a balance, or maybe a synergy, between popular throwaway aesthetics and the conceptual, while keeping the work readable to a wide audience. His work is designed to go viral, but it isn’t as shallow as a LOLCAT
Opinion
Battle for the Legacy of the Egyptian Revolution in Ads & Street Art
NPR's Eric Westervelt looks at the legacy of the Egyptian Revolution and how corporations are using it to promote their brands … but not everyone is thrilled, particularly street artists …
News
NYPD Knows the Answer to "Where's Waldo?"
If you've walked around New York, odds are you've seen Joseph Waldo's work. The artist “defaced” city advertising by adding not the traditional scribbled pen mustache … but now the comedic artist has been arrested on charges including felony criminal mischief and possession of a graffiti instrument.
Opinion
When Ads Could Be Avant-garde
We often forget that many cutting-edge modern artists found funding and support by making ads. The work of New Zealand avant-garde filmmaker Len Lye is a case in point. His films, like "Rainbow Dance" (1936) or the beautifully abstract "Colour Flight" (1938), were commissioned as advertisements to b