http://blog.art21.org/2008/08/08/welcome-to-the-good-life/ The Official Blog of Art21, Inc. and the Art in the Twenty-First Century PBS series Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:38:50 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://blog.art21.org/2008/08/08/welcome-to-the-good-life/comment-page-1/#comment-7837 Be KANYE! | Blogging on Meds Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:19:12 +0000 http://blog.art21.org/2008/08/08/welcome-to-the-good-life/#comment-7837 [...] Anyone else seen these ads in the NYC subways? I saw one this morning and had no idea what the hell was going on. The ad promises to change your boring life. All you have to do is take “two fast-acting Be KANYE tablets” that ”can unleash the SUPERSTAR within.” It turns out that the posters are a part of  Absolut Vodka’s new ad campaign. To take a look at the poster, which I thought was pretty clever and effective, and to read a great post on the topic by Emily Liebert, see here. [...] [...] Anyone else seen these ads in the NYC subways? I saw one this morning and had no idea what the hell was going on. The ad promises to change your boring life. All you have to do is take “two fast-acting Be KANYE tablets” that ”can unleash the SUPERSTAR within.” It turns out that the posters are a part of  Absolut Vodka’s new ad campaign. To take a look at the poster, which I thought was pretty clever and effective, and to read a great post on the topic by Emily Liebert, see here. [...]

]]> http://blog.art21.org/2008/08/08/welcome-to-the-good-life/comment-page-1/#comment-7826 Emily Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:44:27 +0000 http://blog.art21.org/2008/08/08/welcome-to-the-good-life/#comment-7826 Interesting. I think the rise in "performative" ads and other attempts to solicit the active engagement I described with the BeKanye campaign is related to the increased competition for the consumer's attention--sensory space is so cluttered ad companies have to speak twice as loud (or find a different language altogether) to be heard at all... Interesting. I think the rise in “performative” ads and other attempts to solicit the active engagement I described with the BeKanye campaign is related to the increased competition for the consumer’s attention–sensory space is so cluttered ad companies have to speak twice as loud (or find a different language altogether) to be heard at all…

]]> http://blog.art21.org/2008/08/08/welcome-to-the-good-life/comment-page-1/#comment-7819 Short Round Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:55:43 +0000 http://blog.art21.org/2008/08/08/welcome-to-the-good-life/#comment-7819 A flirtatious wink—that's a great way of thinking about it. One thing about this kind of advertising that interests/infuriates me is the relationship between art and commercials: so often nowadays, a commercial poses as (is?) a small work of art—sometimes (as in the case of this Kanye thing or the HBO vampire ads all over Manhattan) almost a kind of performance art or Andy Kaufman–style joke that leads you to the product the way a puzzle leads you to its solution; sometimes (as in the case of certain television ads) a free-standing short film whose only connection to the product seems to be that which exists between an artist and a patron, in which case I suppose we're supposed to run and buy Skittles out of pure gratitude for the corporation's patronage of fine comic–absurdist filmmaking...?—and it seems to me that the boundary between a kind of performance art and a kind of public manipulation is a very important one to watch. A flirtatious wink—that’s a great way of thinking about it. One thing about this kind of advertising that interests/infuriates me is the relationship between art and commercials: so often nowadays, a commercial poses as (is?) a small work of art—sometimes (as in the case of this Kanye thing or the HBO vampire ads all over Manhattan) almost a kind of performance art or Andy Kaufman–style joke that leads you to the product the way a puzzle leads you to its solution; sometimes (as in the case of certain television ads) a free-standing short film whose only connection to the product seems to be that which exists between an artist and a patron, in which case I suppose we’re supposed to run and buy Skittles out of pure gratitude for the corporation’s patronage of fine comic–absurdist filmmaking…?—and it seems to me that the boundary between a kind of performance art and a kind of public manipulation is a very important one to watch.

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