“ART & COPY reveals the stories behind and the personal odysseys of some of the most influential advertising visionaries of our time and their campaigns, including Lee Clow (Apple Computer 1984, and today’s iPod); Dan Wieden (“Just Do It”)…”
I lament that it wasn’t until my sophomore year of college in an anthropology lecture that the blindfold was ripped from my eyes and I started understanding culture. Up until that point I was completely ignorant of the value system I inherited just by living in a semi-conservative-middle-class Midwestern town. During my adolescence the glimpses of life elsewhere were restricted to magazines, 30 second spots and billboards on our occasional treks to the neighboring hub of art & culture known as Des Moines. I remember being particularly drawn to a series of ads that Wieden + Kennedy put out pairing Michael Jordan and Spike Lee (1,2 and 3). They featured gritty black and white photos and aggressive copy that invited aspiring ballers to commune with the gods of the hardwood. Done. For the rest of my teenage years I had Nike’s on my feet.
I respect the power that ad agencies exert and mourn that I’ve handed it to them so willingly. They give us what we want; which is seldom what we need. Did I need Jordan’s in middle school or did I need discipline and determination? It’s no new practice; for centuries advertisers have heard our desires for greatness, intimacy, community and authenticity (which never comes easy) and offered it to us for a financial transaction.
Honestly, I’m excited for the release of ART©. It’s high time a film like this was made and I’m not-so-secretly hoping that it will be a Toto of sorts, pulling back the curtain exposing “very good men and very bad wizards.” Whether we love or hate it, we’ve made our culture what it is and it’s time to get busy whipping it into shape. Now, if only I had a smokin’ pair of shoes to do it in…
