The canaries death was televised - Artistries retreat from advertising.

Look I’m not one to hold advertising up as some great artistic bastion, but as someone who trained and worked as a graphic designer for a number of years, the notion of being professionally and commercially creative is evidently appealing to me.

The creation of adverts and all the ancillaries alongside them, to me seemed like an interesting Venn diagram growing up, this intersection between pragmatic capitalism and human creation and connection, what’s more it seemed like an attainable creative career path in a world that scoffed at the notion of being a full time artist.

I was even fortunate enough to visit the marketing department of a major brand with my economics class, and whilst their talk with their marketing department, they seemed more than happy to brainstorm the most nonsensical of ideas in pursuit of a creative goal. Was it all of my wildest artistic dreams come true? No but I was 16 and it seemed attainable and practical way to keep my creative alive whilst coming to terms with the reality of a fast approaching adulthood.

To this end I took great interest in any advert that stood out to me as being the result of an artist getting their idea brought to life, even if that idea did serve two masters. One such advert is achingly simple, an Audi R8 on a rolling road in a white lab, the camera pans from front to back as the engine revs, resting on a shot of the exposed engine in the back, the bumper removed, flames in the exhaust. As the engine winds down and the screen fades to white a tagline pops up and that’s it.

No swelling music, no aggrandised statements on the meaning of freedom, just engine noise and exposed inner workings. Now I am not a car girl but I swear this advert made me want an Audi r8 like nothing else. There is real artistry in distilling something so perfectly that it hits outside its target market with such impact.

Interestingly enough I looked up the director whilst writing this thread, the latest advert they made for Audi is everything I just praised this other ad for not being. A desperate attempt at a mission impossible trailer crammed in to a car advert.

And this brings me to my point, I’ve always had respect for the desperately hardworking artists fighting corporate machines and creation by spreadsheet, all to try and achieve some artistry, some really human creativity in their adverts. They know these creations will be forced on us regardless, they know higher ups are happy with pattern manipulation and shiny colours to push sales, but they also know they can do more than that and deliver a genuine moment even if it is by necessity a sponsored one. If you’re forced to put a sign up outside someone’s house you may as well try and make it a sign they enjoy seeing right?

And I know, I know art is more than this but at least this form of art gave some solid career path, whilst still giving them an outlet for the creative needs. Yet lately, these last 5 years or so I can’t think of an advert that’s made me stop and smile, that’s reminded me of an artist behind the scenes feeling like they’ve won by getting that idea made.

It’s been a long time since that monkey played Phil Collins on the drum of John Lewis made everyone cry at Christmas. Now all I see is noise, the same nondescript faces applying serums, the same aerial shot of the same road with

what may as well be the same car rebadged, the same phrases said with different sounds about each same thing. Occasionally one will shout or scream in an echo of the absurdists that were once new.

These cry’s catch your attention for a moment but it’s fleeting, more shock than novel interest, the last forlorn cries of a canary dying, warning us they no longer care. They see no profit in pretence anymore, why make art when noise sells all the same.