While advertising and marketing are clearly an art of a sort, more for some than others, it is still an effort to sell a product to consumers. That being said there are certainly a small percentage of advertisements that, were they to exist without any voice over or end text you may see them for what they also are; art. These messages may present challenging social ideas or just beauty for the sake of beauty but they do manage to stir our emotions. The stirring of our emotions is what puts us into a mindframe for accepting the product being advertised but what if we had an opportunity to merely allow our emotions to be stirred and then draw our own conclusions about what that means, individually.

Sony is one of those companies which spends a good deal of money and effort in making art our of advertising. The most recent piece, Domino City, is a great example.

You can also check out the making of the ad here.

Sadly it is advertising that provides the greatest connection to art and creativity to the general public. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing but for the fact that so much of advertising and marketing plays off of the cheapest sensitivities of humanity; fear and greed. As our schools and communities face deepening financial crisis we see deeper cuts in public arts funding, art classes and other creative endevours.

Juxtapose that with the fact that US cities are fighting to attract a global “creative class” as the way of sustaining the city and the culture, ultimately hoping that the creative’s will attract a greater diversity of tax base and eventual financial success.

I’m a fan of creating things, or enjoy other people’s creation as a way of filling my life. What if more people spent time doing this instead of trying to merely consume? What if advertisers spent more time crafting art for arts sake, instead of for product consumption?