“Art & Copy”: Just See It

April 1, 2010 Comments »

It’s part of who we are.  What we aspire to.  What we talk about with our friends.

It’s a big part of pop culture…. and it’s fascinating.  Why else would a show about a Madison Avenue ad agency is the 60s have made such a splash?

But unlike “Mad Men”, the documentary “Art & Copy” doesn’t use advertising as a backdrop to explore the social and gender dynamics of one of the most revolutionary decades in history, it shows us how advertising created a revolution through a series of historic campaigns and helps us understand the inspiration behind their creators.

Campaigns We’ll Never Forget

Nike’s “Just Do It” did much more than sell running shoes, it inspired people to lose weight, change careers, find love, and, ultimately, purse their goals and dreams.

Pretty powerful.

But even more amazing to me was learning that such an aspirational, carpe diem campaign, originated from a story about a death row inmate being executed.  Its headline “Go Do It.”

And what about the “Got Milk?” campaign?  I remember flipping through Glamour and other magazines and seeing ads of some of my favorite celebrities with milk mustaches.  Simple. Brilliant. Memorable… and the genesis of a slew of other pop culture slogans on everything from t-shirts to bumper stickers.

Though I found Doug Pray’s behind-the-scenes look at how these campaigns were conceived interesting, the storyteller in me enjoyed learning about the creative motivation behind these advertising hall of famers even more—and understanding how the personal lives of the likes of Mary Wells and George Lois influenced their work.

They Almost Never Aired

I think of advertising as risk-taking, bold, perhaps, at times, controversial. Yet so many of the creatives who were hired to grab our attention by either entertaining or shocking us had to fight hard to get corporate America and their own agencies to buy into their innovative campaigns.

Not surprisingly many of them almost never made it onto the airwaves.

But despite those behind-the-scenes battles between left-brained executives and right-brained creatives, popular culture was forever changed by these campaigns.

And while copywriters and creatives no longer conceive of ads without even speaking to each other, one thing that’s remained a constant in advertising is that its success, its power comes from emotional impact.

If you want to move somebody to do something, you have to connect with them.

That’s the essence of advertising and the core of filmmaking.