Thursday 22 November 2007

The whole "Art 'inspires' Advertising" fine line.

The 'Hot' copies:












  • Lowe's John Lewis ad vs Noble and Webster (See other replicas here)


Generally I think all creatives agree that they are inspired by, and interested in Art and Design (just look at all the links to my blog!). Especially if you are an art director, visually you have to have an artistic eye. As a creative team, your originality should be in the idea. That is, solving the problem of the brief, and thinking of a unique way to sell the product. If in the next stage you reference an artistic style in history I don't think that it's a problem. But if your ad is either influenced by or remotely resembles another piece of art that has gone before I think it is time to admit defeat and go back to the drawing board. We are supposed to be creative and so our ideas should be disposable. I know in some cases creatives may be unaware of work that has gone before them, as it is impossible to keep track of art everywhere and ads worldwide. But I think we have a responsibilty to our profession to try and keep things fresh, and not forget that if your gut feeling is 'it feels done before', then it probably has been. Replicating work means artists lose out, and the brand/ ad agency gets credit for great work that the public may not have seen anywhere else before.
Advertising may be a business, but the creative dept is the exciting bit, so lets keep it that way.
Read more of this debate on CR blog here.

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