First Thursday

I am furiously researching and reading through advertising publications for inspiration for my next big post, but in the mean time, I thought I would share something pretty cool that I did on my lunch break. For living in the Seattle area my entire life, I'm beginning to realize I sure don't know much about it. Something awesome I discovered today is that every first Thursday of the month all the museums in Seattle are free. I took advantage of this by checking out the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) with my cousin and his girlfriend. The current exhibits include: Kurt (a dedication to Kurt Cobain) and "love fear pleasure lust pain glamour death" — Andy Warhol Media Works.

I don't really know much about Kurt Cobain or Nirvana, but I can say I still appreciated it. Loud music, sculptures, paintings, drawings, "doodles", and video made this an incredibly chaotic and dynamic veiwing, not your typical presumption about an art gallery experience. Then again, how else could you convey the essence of Kurt?

Of the two, I definitely prefered the Warhol exhibit. Much of it consisted of huge projections of his silent films. They were basically just hour long videos of close up shots of various peoples faces. They seemed simple enough, but I soon realized that they were all so different. Just the emotions expressed on each individuals faces changed the mood of each film; one man was smoking a cigarette, one woman smiling and giggling, one practically pulling her hair out, and one had tears running down her cheeks. The projections reminded me of a class I took my freshman year called DXARTS 200 (Digital Arts and New Media). I couldn't help but think about what a realatively new experience I was having. In the past, no one would have accepted this as art, which is why it is so amazing that Warhol did these decades ago.

Can I tie this into my job and the online advertising industry? Well, I can try. Art is incredibly dynamic, and proving to change the way we think on a daily basis. But it requires bold pioneers and new thinkers to make these changes come to life. There really is no set definition of what art is in our world today. In a similar fashion, the advertising world is also incredibly dynamic. Finding new ways to reach consumers requires constant innovation and evolving technology. Also, the types of ads we see continue to change. Contraversial or confusing advertisments are sometimes the most effective, challenging or captivating the minds of millions of consumers and imbeding the brand in their everyday thoughts.

Here are some contraversial/extreme ads of 2010 I came accross on One Extra Pixel
(http://www.onextrapixel.com/2010/02/25/80-extreme-advertisements-that-will-challenge-your-mind/)The ads are all very out of the box and almost shocking to look at. They are all produced by fairly well known brands, some more than others. See what you think for yourself!