Question of the Week: Is Advertising An Art?

Hit the internet and you’ll find folks saying, “absolutely not.” Yet you’ll just as easily find folks saying, “without a doubt.” Then there’s a third and larger camp of folks that don’t take a definitive stand.

We reside in that third camp. We see this as one of those annoying questions that has no right answer. Like, “Is Kenneth a good name for a tree frog?” 

In other words, it's subjective.

But since the question was posed, we figured it was worth exploring a little. So let’s start by asking this:

How Does One Define Art?

Merriam Webster defines art as this:

The conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.

Wikipedia - posing as a dictionary here - defines it as:

The product or process of deliberately arranging items (often with symbolic significance) in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect.

So given both of these definitions, it’s possible that advertising could be perceived as art. Then again, what we perceive isn’t absolute truth. Like when you’re in a non-moving car and the vehicle next to you is slowly inching forward so that you PERCEIVE that you’re moving backward. But you’re not.

Anyhow, without getting drawn into a philosophical argument on perception, we should look at the other important question here:

How Does One Define Advertising?

Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say now:

Advertising is how a company encourages people to buy their products, services or ideas. Advertisers influence our emotions by using techniques that include stereotyping and targeting the audience according to who we are. 

And as for Merriam Webster?

The action of calling something to the attention of the public especially by paid announcements.

Okay. So there seems to be some clear delineation between the two. 

Advertising Has A Definitive End Result

To encourage the viewer to buy. But that does that necessarily preclude it from being art? 

Have you ever been stirred by an emotional and inspiring

commercial that tells a story? Okay, so it’s a very short story and not a full-length art film. But does size really matter? The expertise and creativity required to produce it could have easily come from the same place.

The advertising as art question is difficult because it deals with the complexity of being human. So let’s simplify the human into three parts:

• Senses/Emotions
• Intellect
• Will

When we focus on senses and emotions, we’re entertaining. When we focus on intellect, we’re educating. When we focus on will, we’re creating propaganda.

These three things rarely exist in their purest form though. As you trip through life, most of what you encounter will be some combination of these three things. Art and advertising included.  

But where art seems to deviate is that there isn’t as definitive an end result as there is in advertising.

Art Pursues A Higher Truth

In other words, that commercial that moved you in some way might just qualify as art if it conveyed a little bit of truth about the human experience and what it all means.

Then again, maybe not.

Yeah, most advertising focuses on entertaining the senses and emotions and then appealing to the viewer’s will to buy the product. There might even be a little education thrown in for good measure. And frankly, that’s considered really solid advertising. The kind that gets awards. 

But there is advertising that manages to touch on some existential truth and resonates through as art.  And, of

course, there have been countless times when advertising has inspired art. 

It did wonders for Mr. Warhol. 

So while it seems impossible to answer this week’s question, it’s always a hoot to keep the conversation going. 

Especially as the face of advertising continues to change.