So, recently I read Infinite Jest, and I was dragged into the world, inside the mind of David Foster Wallace.
The book seduced my mind like no other book ever have, infinite Jest is a world in itself, but this blog is not about that, it’s about the thoughts of DFW on Advertising.
More or so the ideas and the thoughts of people on advertising tend to become very run-of-the-mill thingy but his voice is so distinct and singular I couldn’t help but take notice and think about the Industry I work in. For some who don’t know, David Foster Wallace is not an ad-man, he’s one of the prime post-modern writers of America (and a great one) who has written books on various themes concerning culture, depression, creativity, depression, ambition and purpose of life (or rather the fragility of it). He is basically G.O.A.T.
Here’s what he had to say about ads which look like art. It’s not if you agree or disagree with him. But let him walk into your brain for a hot minute and see if it expands?
“An ad that pretends to be art is — at absolute best — like somebody who smiles warmly at you only because he wants something from you. This is dishonest, but what’s sinister is the cumulative effect that such dishonesty has on us: since it offers a perfect facsimile or simulacrum of goodwill without goodwill’s real spirit, it messes with our heads and eventually starts upping our defences even in cases of genuine smiles and real art and true goodwill. It makes us feel confused and lonely and impotent and angry and scared. It causes despair.”
I have personally seen ads which look like arts, have admired them and then got disappointed seeing the logo or the message below it. It is quite unexpected for a person who regards art highly. However, if I see on the other side, if the advertiser does a good enough job of using the art with a purpose in order for you to get to know the brand, would you still take be feel cheated by the ad? Art has a tendency to seduce the mind and so is the function of advertising, but if not done right, one will neither appreciate the painting or buy the product, methinks.
“It did what all ads are supposed to do, create an anxiety relievable by purchase.”
This is true but blame it on the clients not the creatives to do that (wink, wink)
“Entertainment’s chief job is to make you so riveted by it that you can’t tear your eyes away, so the advertisers can advertise,”
Media has its ugly face too, and if there is an industry encashing on other’s attention, there is also an audience for the same. The demand is facilitated by the supply, and the ads only have a scene in the whole play.
It is a key element in literature ranging from science fiction to literary theory that as the barriers of individual consciousness degrade we absorb a kind of shared cultural consciousness full of corporate junk. In this version of dystopia, advertising becomes more pervasive, consumer culture supplants traditional culture, and language itself, from place names to “common nouns, is subsumed by the things we buy and sell.”
