ART & COPY Documentary Review

“ART & COPY is a film about advertising. Not all advertising. It’s about the greatest advertising?”

- Doug Pray, Director of “ART & COPY”

This documentary reveals the work and inspiration that fueled some of the most influential advertisers of our time. These people strongly impacted modern culture and for one reason or another, are virtually unheard of outside of the marketing industry. These people were able to not only grab but also hold the attention of millions of viewers, which in anyone in the business will tell you is no easy task.

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“What's different and perhaps surprising about this movie, is that it isn't about bad advertising, that 98% which so often annoys and disrespects its audience. I didn’t want to make a doc that just trashes trashy advertising. Too easy, too obvious, and why bother? Instead, granted access to a handful of the greatest advertising minds of the last fifty years, I felt it could be a more powerful statement to focus the film only on those rare few who actually moved and inspired our culture with their work.” – Doug Pray

Ever wonder where the phrase “Got Milk?” actually came from? Well “Got Milk?” is an advertising campaign encouraging the consumption of cow’s milk. It was created by ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners in 1993. In the documentary they show the original commercial with interview clips from the people who came up with the phrase and other expert’s feelings towards the ad. “Got Milk?” is one of America’s most popular catchphrases in advertising and has been ever since this commercial first aired back in October of 1993.

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Another groundbreaking commercial is one by fast food restaurant chain Wendy’s. They came up with the catchphrase, “Where’s the beef?” in a television ad in 1984. During the commercial three elderly women stand around an exaggeratedly large hamburger bun topped with a minuscule sized hamburger patty. This prompts one of the ladies to angrily question, “Where’s the beef?” Entertaining commercial which became popular at the time but never truly took off like ‘Got Milk?” had.

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The last commercial I want to talk about from this documentary is an ad by Apple, which is considered to be the most influential and successful commercial in the history of television. “1984” is an American TV commercial which introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer for the first time. The ad initially aired on January 22, 1984 during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. The commercial depicts a woman running with a sledgehammer being chased by masked guards. As countless people march single file into an theater, all dressed the same, and being brain washed the “hero” hurls her hammer towards the screen shattering it. The message of this ad is that this woman (or Macintosh) is saving humanity from conformity and conventionality. As the commercial is ending the words, “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984.’”

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The film is great for college students aspiring to eventually work in the marketing/advertising industry. Doug Pray dove right into some of the greatest advertisements in the past half-century, most of which were well before my days. I highly recommend this documentary to anyone who enjoys commercials as I do. There is going to be screenings in New York from May 12 - May 16 2010 at The Paley Center for Media. For screening times please visit the ART & COPY website.

http://www.artandcopyfilm.com/screenings/

Battle of the Fruit

Company: BlackBerry, Apple
Aired: February, 2009
Channel: Banned
Appeal: Psychological/Negative

So I was eating an apple today. This had no effect on me eventually finding and deciding to talk about the following commercials but I just thought I would tell you anyway. So… while I ate my apple I logged into my Apple Macbook. As I watched a SportsCenter rerun for the third time in a row, I grew awfully bored of some of the repeated commercials. I wanted something I had never seen so I started to browse the Internet in search of some good ads to watch and I came across a pair of spectacular ones!

The original iPhone was announced on January 9th 2007 but later finally released in the United States on June 29th, 2007. It was then named Invention of the Year by Time magazine. I remember when it first came out people were going crazy over it. Regardless of how high they jacked up the price, the lines were still out the door and every Apple store was sold out of them in hours. No phone had ever had a touch screen. Apple was so far ahead in this new technology that it took other companies like Verizon and BlackBerry a little over a year to release anything remotely worthy of being compared to the iPhone. But still, the buzz I felt was surrounding the elite iPhone. Anyone who had one made sure to flaunt it everywhere they went, and anyone who didn’t have it (myself included) wished they could break their current contract and switch over to get the iPhone. Whether it was the free Apps, Wi-Fi Internet everywhere or amazingly sensitive touch screen, this phone was truly unmatched.

On Novemeber 21st, 2008, BlackBerry finally released their direct competition with the iPhone called, “BlackBerry Storm.” It too generated some buzz and gave hope to those with Verizon. It is also a touch-screen “smartphone” which received mixed reviews from customers. Many appeared to find the touchscreen difficult to use and prevented fast-paced typing. Reviewers also managed to find many glitches in the phone’s software. It wasn’t nearly as highly acclaimed as the iPhone had been just one short year earlier.

While surfing the web I stumbled upon a BlackBerry commercial that was so controversial, it was banned from television. Check it out!

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I know right? Wasn’t that brilliant? It starts off with a black screen but the viewer hears a shotgun being reloaded and then fired. Then the next frame is a shiny, red apple with a simple and plain white backdrop. Next, out of nowhere, a bullet rapidly and easily pierces the center of the apple, which you later learn is actually not a bullet but rather a blackberry. As the blackberry effortlessly penetrates the apple, the screen goes into slow motion, and the visualization is tremendous. We are able to see where the blackberry both enters and exits the apple, along with the juices and water that come flying out of it. Then the screen zooms in and focuses on the spinning blackberry as the words, “The world’s first touch-screen BlackBerry.” That’s when you really understand what the ad is for. This concept of not only the shotgun noise but also shooting an innocent piece of fruit was decided to be too touchy of a subject for television and was banned before the commercial even got any airtime. You can have a grown man tackling Betty White during the Super Bowl but a blackberry shooting through an apple is too much for the viewers?

Apple, despite the fact that the commercial never truly aired, felt they needed to fire back at BlackBerry because of how much publicity the banned ad was receiving on the internet. Enjoy this one!

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Apple mimicked both the beginning of a black screen, a shotgun being reloaded and then fired. As the blackberry is about to come in contact with it, the apple proves to be way too powerful and strong. The blackberry explodes all around the apple as the words, “Simple Facts” flashes across the stage. Brilliant!

I absolutely love both of these ads. The concept was the real success in this commercial but through a negative appeal both companies turn the negative of their competitors into the positive of their own. Both tried to display that their product and brand are the dominant one. I cannot wait for the next organic showdown!