Advertising has always loved to use art as a sign of wealth and taste. No matter how much our art museums push to open their doors to a wider range of audiences, advertising always manages to pull it back to the gold frame. Take this Lexus ad as an example. Interestingly it has also latched onto the idea of photography finally being in the art mainstream (#alertpeterperyerimmediately) but still manages to frame the labels and wall texts in a weird mash-up of ideas about how art can be displayed.
Apparently (well according to academics Vanessa M. Patrick of the University of Houston and Henrik Hagtvedt of Boston College in their text Advertising visuals), the use of art in advertisements can be reduced to four main types:
- Mere Presence versus Integrated Presence
- Telling a Story with the Artwork versus Creating an Artwork for the Story
- Mimicking the Original Artwork: Reminding versus Parodying
- Symbolic Connection versus Substantive Connection
But we all knew that already, right?
