Re: Saving the advertising industry in a fractured media-verse? Biz 2.0
Tom Walker wrote: Science World here in Vancouver runs a continuous loop of the 1987 Fischli and Weiss film The Way Things Go. The borrowings of the Honda ad from the film are obvious to anyone who has viewed both. I didn't know that. But not surprising. It's an ad -- and people in advertising borrow everything. Everything is a twist on some recognizable existent piece of communication. As to the nature of advertising, itself: That's their job. I've known many of them over the years. Sit around, getting bombed by lunch, looking at the world around them, and coming up with twists on themes that already have a lot of brand/recognition value out there. That allows them to, more or less, rip off the recognition value of something else. It makes 30 second spots or whatever more powerful. It's the same thing Chomsky talks about in his news media model. People with divergent opinions on politics are not necessarily cut from the talking head circuit because there is a conspiracy of right wing ideologues trying to silence them -- sure, there are those out there, but it's not in every situation. Rather, those spouting conventional wisdoms are able to be more easily understood in the small space of time they will get on camera. On the other hand, try to go on and say something positive about Cuba, you will have to set the table to make your comments coherent to the audience -- and that process of setting the table eats into your air time. In the crunch of the editing room, believe me, you often get cut if there is no operative sound bite. It's structural. Ken. -- If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner. -- Tallulah Bankhead
Re: Saving the advertising industry in a fractured media-verse? Biz 2.0
Kenneth Campbell wrote: Rather, those spouting conventional wisdoms are able to be more easily understood in the small space of time they will get on camera. Or, to cite the Far-Sighted Manifesto by Francis Picabia, worn by Andr Breton on a sandwichboard: POUR QUE VOUS AIMIEZ QUELQUE CHOSE IL FAUT QUE VOUS L'AYEZ VU et ENTENDU DEPUIS LONGTEMPS tas D'IDIOTS Tom Walker 604 255 4812
Re: Saving the advertising industry in a fractured media-verse? Biz 2.0
I wrote: Rather, those spouting conventional wisdoms are able to be more easily understood in the small space of time they will get on camera. Tom Wrote: Or, to cite the Far-Sighted Manifesto by Francis Picabia, worn by Andr Breton on a sandwichboard: POUR QUE VOUS AIMIEZ QUELQUE CHOSE IL FAUT QUE VOUS L'AYEZ VU et ENTENDU DEPUIS LONGTEMPS tas D'IDIOTS Grin. That's another rather more direct way to put it. Of course, the targets of the criticism are different, in some respects, I suppose. Consumers of political debate through the commercial news media, with its structure of time slots and fill between ad breaks, they often have no choice. What propaganda can awaken them to the fraud around them? (Personally, I believe it's to be found in mixing cultural conventions, usually in a humorous way, so as the lessen the raw impact but still keeping them engaged.) Dada was an attempt to reflect a shattered world -- and shatter hegemony. The stuff out of Germany didn't have to reflect broken human beings in any allegorical sense. Broken human beings were all over the place -- literally broken, missing limbs, missing homes, missing lives, missing futures. And there was a complete failure of political ideologies. What a time that was... Ken. -- You got to be a spirit, Bulworth. You can't be no ghost. -- playwright Amiri Baraka in Bulworth, 1998
Re: Saving the advertising industry in a fractured media-verse? Biz 2.0
Science World here in Vancouver runs a continuous loop of the 1987 Fischli and Weiss film The Way Things Go. The borrowings of the Honda ad from the film are obvious to anyone who has viewed both. What is also obvious -- and ominous -- are the non-borrowings: the autotalitarian elision of the gritty, angst-ridden edge that the original had. There is a definite sense of futility, debris and impending 'technological' lurching out of control to the original that perhaps, come to think of it, is more appropriate for a car ad than the sanitized white-painted walls and polished hardwood floors of the Honda re-make. Interesting that the Biz 2.0 article fails to mention the Fischli and Weiss film. It's not as if the resemblance is a secret. For another take on The Way Things Go, here's an excerpt from Arthur Danto: http://www.postmedia.net/999/fischweiss1.htm Tom Walker 604 255 4812
Re: Saving the advertising industry in a fractured media-verse? Biz 2.0
Tom Walker wrote: Science World here in Vancouver runs a continuous loop of the 1987 Fischli For another take on The Way Things Go, here's an excerpt from Arthur Danto: http://www.postmedia.net/999/fischweiss1.htm From Danto: the individual episodes seem to happen one after another smoothly and without interruption - the danger being that something will go wrong and break the chain. It is, for all the triviality of its individual episodes, an epic of some kind, vastly transcending the connotations of play while retaining the spirit of innocent mischief in which boys at play egg one another on to high and higher efforts which, taken collectively, seem to imply the pointless horror of unending war. Beginning with a Katzenjammer Kids mentality, Fischli and Weiss take their mischief to a distance so great that the resulting work becomes a postmodern classic, with a rich art-historical pedigree ranging from Jean Tinguely, the fabricator of self-destroying machines, to Joseph Beuys, who made art of soap, old newspapers, and whatever was, to echo Heidegger once again, at hand. This high and higher efforts that Danto speaks of, leading to chaos, must owe something to Laurel and Hardy as well. And of course Chaplin's Modern Times. In fact to much of the great slapstick, 1915-1940. Carrol
Re: Saving the advertising industry in a fractured media-verse? Biz 2.0
Or, digging deeper into the ruins... Homage to New York 1960 http://www.artmuseum.net/w2vr/archives/Kluver/00_Homage.html I asked Jean what I could do for him. Jean explained that he wanted to make a machine that destroyed itself and that he needed bicycle wheels... ...It was all over in 27 minutes. The audience applauded and descended on the wreckage for souvenirs. Jean called the event Homage to New York. Prophecy?
Re: Saving the advertising industry in a fractured media-verse? Biz 2.0
Carrol Cox wrote, This high and higher efforts that Danto speaks of, leading to chaos, must owe something to Laurel and Hardy as well. And of course Chaplin's Modern Times. In fact to much of the great slapstick, 1915-1940. Yes, also constructivism and dada. As Walter Benjamin wrote: Modernity; the time of hell. The punishments of hell are always the newest thing going in this domain. What is at issue is not that the same thing happens over and over (much less is it a question here of eternal return), but rather that the face of the world, the colossal head, precisely in what is newest never alters -- that this newest remains, in every respect, the same
Re: Saving the advertising industry in a fractured media-verse? Biz 2.0
- Original Message - From: Tom Walker [EMAIL PROTECTED] Carrol Cox wrote, This high and higher efforts that Danto speaks of, leading to chaos, must owe something to Laurel and Hardy as well. And of course Chaplin's Modern Times. In fact to much of the great slapstick, 1915-1940. Yes, also constructivism and dada. As Walter Benjamin wrote: Modernity; the time of hell. The punishments of hell are always the newest thing going in this domain. What is at issue is not that the same thing happens over and over (much less is it a question here of eternal return), but rather that the face of the world, the colossal head, precisely in what is newest never alters -- that this newest remains, in every respect, the same == Colossal Head -- by Los Lobos [a great cd which opens with wistful yearning about the revo, btw] (David Hidalgo/Louie Prez) What big eyes you have What big lips you have What a nice hat I love you (Ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya.) What you said I can't hear you (Ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya.) (What you said) (What you said) Do the colossal head (What you said) (What you said) Do the colossal head (Ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya.) (Ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya.) (Ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya.) (Ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya. Ya, ya, ya.)
