I absolutely adore advertising. I wouldn’t be writing this blog if I didn’t. But ask me a few months ago if I thought that advertising was a form of true art, and I would’ve said no.
You see, to me, art in its highest form is transcendence from the material. It’s the closest one can get to connecting the desires and emotional state of the inside mind with the outside world. Advertising is created with the express purpose of selling a product or service–materialism–therefore it leaves little room to be defined as art the way I think of it.
However, I feel that the past year has reiterated a sort of transcendence for advertising in and of itself. Is advertising’s end goal still to sell stuff? Of course, but companies have increasingly been willing to use advertising as a vehicle that speaks to the human condition. And a year of emotionally driven advertising has reminded me that advertising can indeed be a form of high art.
All this emotional advertising seems to have started a little over a year ago with “Halftime in America“, a commercial for Chrysler by Wieden + Kennedy. The commercial aired during the Super Bowl and spoke directly to a country that, like Chrysler, was down and out. Beautifully written and executed, “Halftime in America” silenced rooms across the country. Afterwards, other emotionally charged ads like “Farmer” for Dodge RAM and “Thank You Mom” for P&G appeared.
These ads prove that companies are waking up to the fact that it pays to brand human. Playing to emotions creates brand advocates and it’s good for the bottom line. People don’t want to open their wallet for a giant mega corporation richer than a country, they want to open their wallet to someone that gets them on the most basic level.
4 Recent Ads that Will Make You Cry (With Joy)
1. “Nana” for Cheerios by Saatchi & Saatchi NY
2. “A Letter to Mom” for Famous Footwear by Y&R
3. “The Animal Family” for Skype by Pereira & O’Dell
4. “Made for Mankind” for Acura by Mullen
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