Wednesday, February 11, 2009

bleghhh in advertising

What is all the fuss about Shepard Fairey and his use of a not-so-great photo to create some great, iconic, poster art? Artists have been working from photographs since there was photography. Check out Degas and Bonnard, to name a few. They didn't only work from photographs, but became accomplished photographers. It's not a big deal to work from a photographic source and the end result is not any less "art."

If you want to waste time pointing a finger at a blatant rip-off, look no further than the latest Pepsi campaign, which not only co-opts the Obama campaign's logo, but is now using it with the word "change" in its print ads. As if that is the change anyone needs. I've never been a fan of Coke's red-headed stepchild anyway, but they just guaranteed that this swill will not find a way into my home. Pass the Dr. Pepper...

2 comments:

Steven said...

To be fair, I'd say the Obama campaign co-opted first, then Pepsi co-opted back.

But what's hilarious to me is that the Pepsi logo looks like the belly of a fat person wearing blue pants and a too-small red t-shirt, which is perfect since HFCS is probably the biggest culprit in the so-called obesity epidemic.

xoxoxo said...

Maybe. I sure didn't notice the logo change until recently, and now they're definitely milking the similarity. That's hysterical about the belly - now I can't see anything else!

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