"Artists" who do Commercials and Ads

ZOS23xy

Sexy Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2007
Posts
4,906
Media
3
Likes
31
Points
258
Location
directly above the center of the earth
I had a hard time when used to be a funnyman Jay Leno started shilling for corn chips. And now he's multichin and smug looking and largelyy unoriginal just about every night on your TV.

Same with Drew Carey. He was a talent. He showed it, and he did well with his abilities. Now he's gotten to be real rotund and suck ass doing "The Price is Right.".

What a waist.
 

ZOS23xy

Sexy Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2007
Posts
4,906
Media
3
Likes
31
Points
258
Location
directly above the center of the earth
This conversation seems to be taking place in some kind of time vacuum. This is what passed for "philosophical" debate 5 decades ago -- the idea of the artist selling out to Hollywood, selling out to consumerism, prostituting his talent.


In the end, beer commercials and Carnival Cruise commercials and Priceline commercial don't matter. The art is what matters. Who cares if the artist is hocking Toyotas or Taco Bell or Alpo on the side. Ultimately, it's the life work that matters.

There are many artists I admire: the playwright Tom Stoppard (I just read "The Coast of Utopia"), the writer Joan Didion, the English band Muse, Meryl Streep, Michael Moore, Christopher Hitchens. What do I care what they sell on the side? What matters is the art, the end product, not the occasional paycheck that helps to subsidize that art.

Michelangelo could hock flaming-hot Cheetos. I don't care as long as he keeps painting like "The Creation of Adam".


Maybe we should all worry a little more about our politicians getting into bed with healthcare insurance companies - and trying their damdest to derail reform - and worry a little less about an artist selling cheeseburgers or shampoo.

A sell out is an "artist" who no longer matters, does this work and not much else. Michelangelo is dead. Pick a living example.

I don't mind if an artist does advertising, as long as they know what they are hawking. No sense in selling palm oil without realising that Borneo is losing its rain forest through the raising of palm.

Things these days run deep. Back ground checks are needed. When Micheal Jordan started hawking Nike, people objected. He almost didn't care.
 

ZOS23xy

Sexy Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2007
Posts
4,906
Media
3
Likes
31
Points
258
Location
directly above the center of the earth
Bbucko & Nick8, my friends:

I'm on west coast time, so still anxiously waiting for "Dancing with the Stars" to come on...

Does a "political artist" like Tom DeLay qualify as selling out by dancing in a commercial mainstream entertainment? Does Flashy hope that DeLay doesn't make a Pepsi or an El Pollo Loco commercial?



I'm glad I don't watch TV. Too much crud on. OF Course, you can watch what you like. Just don't ask me about "American Idiol"...and other such examples of mainstream imbecile collectives.
 

Flashy

Sexy Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2007
Posts
7,901
Media
0
Likes
27
Points
183
Location
at home
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
Thank you :smile: I suppose the point I was making was that, even though I was being employed for my artistry, it was entirely for the purposes of selling this particular companies diamonds, my own work would have been secondary. The reason I didn't take the commission wasn't because it would have been more about the diamond dealer's wears but because they didn't want to give me enough creative input.

If I were ever asked to use my skills to sell someone else's product in the future I would have to assess the brief closely and have creative control, but I have no moral objection to whatever work I do being specifically created to sell someone else's product or concept.

Being a Goldsmith, I often work with materials whose origins are controversial, gems from corrupt or dodgy countries, precious metals mined at the expense of the environment e.t.c. and because these materials are rare and costly I can't always be too picky about where they come from and who I have to deal with in order to obtain them. Of course I try as hard as possible to be as ethical as possible but this isn't always practical.

Lets say I got a deal at some point in the future to do some publicity pieces with De Beers, they're a dubious bunch at best, but I couldn't afford to turn that kind of commission down, and I don't think I would. If that makes me a sell out then I'm comfortable ( not happy ) with that.

i appreciate your honesty, i think you don't have anything to worry about on an "ethically selling out" level.

as you said, it was less about the product (their diamonds) that they wanted you to sell as opposed to them wanting a particular style, this not giving you license to use your artistic abilities to the fullest.

i think, an i used to know a jeweler who was friends with my parents, is that when a goldsmith works to make a piece of jewelry, and diamonds are to be involved, it should become a design that the designer uses creativity to express, either through the basic instruction or needs of an individual client who requests a wedding ring with a rough design "guide", but offers lattitude to the maker, or a company that asks for a specific line of jewelry, who also gives lattitude for the design.

i think what you seemed to encounter, was a discomfort with the company wanting you to sort of be nothing more than a producer, as opposed to an even partial "creator" or design, as such, only using part of what makes you the artist you are.

i think you would have been on "safe" ground in my point of view whichever you chose to do with that company. ultimately, it came down to you being less comfortable with them not allowing you some creative lattitude, but either way, i think you were in no way "selling out", had you either accepted or rejected their offer. you were still producing art that people would have purchased based on its quality and appeal.

as you said, a company like DeBeers, or other companies who might be involved in conflict diamonds and such presents more of an ethical question, not necessarily an artistic one...

for example, if you received one diamond that you knew was from a legal, and vetted source, and you received one diamond from let us say a "questionable" source, that was known to use conflict diamonds, you could still create, i am sure, two utterly beautiful diamond rings, and the art of using both diamonds would be equivalent...of course, as you mentioned, the problem would lie not in the artistic appeal of using the diamond, but the ethical quandary of it.

we all face those questions in some way on a daily basis, and it is not easy.

but i do not think you are in danger of being considered a "sellout" :wink::smile:
 

Flashy

Sexy Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2007
Posts
7,901
Media
0
Likes
27
Points
183
Location
at home
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male

QFT.

The Mrs. did a case study on Tiger Woods during her MBA years as the prime example of brand dilution via celebrity overexposure.

that is interesting Hazel...don't mean to be a pest, but is there a place i could read that online? (you can cross out her name and the school etc.)

i think it would be very interesting because i find the athletic endorsement game very interesting and have numerous friends in positions at some of the big sports firms and it has always been of interest to me.

I agree on Tiger...i really admire his play etc...but i just feel he is out there *TOO MUCH* all the time.

I tend to think that an athlete at the top of his game should definitely endorse that which is pertinent to their sport...

for example, i don't begrudge Tiger doing ads for Nike, and other golf related stuff...and nothing wrong with his american express card commercials, or even gatorade...

where it starts going overboard with Tiger is deodorant, gilette, and who was it, chevrolet? who honestly believes that Tiger drove a Chevy?

there was a really fascinating article written *YEARS* ago by Hunter S. Thompson, in the beginning of the era that really heralded the new era of sports endorsers, and watching an icon having to endorse things...

Thompson followed the awesome skiier (who i loved) Jean Claude Killy as he was making endorsement appearances for Chevrolet in 1970...

it was called
"The Temptations of Jean-Claude Killy"


I highly recommend it!
 

HazelGod

Sexy Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2006
Posts
7,154
Media
1
Likes
31
Points
183
Location
The Other Side of the Pillow
Sexuality
99% Straight, 1% Gay
Gender
Male
that is interesting Hazel...don't mean to be a pest, but is there a place i could read that online? (you can cross out her name and the school etc.)

This was just a class assignment, so it's not published...but I'll see if I can find her original paper and send it your way.

where it starts going overboard with Tiger is deodorant, gilette, and who was it, chevrolet? who honestly believes that Tiger drove a Chevy?

It was GM...and specifically the Buick marque. He was featured in every media format when they tried to launch that SUV/crossover thing.

He was also pimping TAG Heuer watches, and for some reason was featured as the mascot for American Express and the consulting firm Accenture.

The gist of her study was that his value as an associative brand differentiator was completely nullified by his overexposure. He was everywhere, so it was virtually impossible for the average consumer to identify him as being the face of any one brand. The marketing value of a celebrity endorsement is the aura of exclusivity...and when your chosen celebrity is getting passed around more frequently than Paris Hilton's crabs, that aura just evaporates.
 

Flashy

Sexy Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2007
Posts
7,901
Media
0
Likes
27
Points
183
Location
at home
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
This was just a class assignment, so it's not published...but I'll see if I can find her original paper and send it your way.



It was GM...and specifically the Buick marque. He was featured in every media format when they tried to launch that SUV/crossover thing.

He was also pimping TAG Heuer watches, and for some reason was featured as the mascot for American Express and the consulting firm Accenture.

The gist of her study was that his value as an associative brand differentiator was completely nullified by his overexposure. He was everywhere, so it was virtually impossible for the average consumer to identify him as being the face of any one brand. The marketing value of a celebrity endorsement is the aura of exclusivity...and when your chosen celebrity is getting passed around more frequently than Paris Hilton's crabs, that aura just evaporates.

good points...that is kind of how i feel about Tiger and did about Michael Jordan towards his big phase (when he was doing Nike, Energizer, Hanes, Ballpark franks, Gatorade, McDonalds, and a couple others)

with someone as great as MJ was, i am surprised i remember them all, but the ones everyone really remembers well, are the Air Jordan ads for Nike, and the great "Be Like Mike" Gatorade song one...aside from that, it is kind of a blur...and that was the same era when he was in Space Jam, a michael jackson video, and a few other things...

total oversaturation.
 
1

185248

Guest
This was a song by Aussie artists and writers that was used by Coke a Cola here, back then. Written by Jonny Young and performed by Russell Morris. Do you think I can find the ad, nup. http://youtu.be/fQ8d2EB435Q