The Poetics of Advertising
In chapter 3 “The Poetics of Advertising” Andrew McStay (2013) investigates the relationship between advertising, arts and crafts and whether the first belongs to either one or the other of those categories. By trying to squish advertising into only one field does not seem very reasonable. It could even be argued, that it belongs to neither, but rather is its very own category, made from bits and pieces collected from the world and reassembled into something new, art with a purpose: mutual advantage.
According to him, the poetics of advertising lie in the way it is assembled from many different sources to create something which will affect people in a specific desired way.
He further argues that advertising, arts, crafts and other similar practices have been robbing each other of techniques, outlooks, etc. without caring for original intentions regarding style. Why does it need to be defined as any guild’s intellectual property, when it can just be seen as everyone’s to take, transform and create with? In the end everyone strives for something better or at least different, because with adapting a “foreign” style comes seeing the problem from a different angle and finding new, elegant solutions for problems by combining former individual practices.
One thing that came out of this was the poster. First more of an art form that sought to please aesthetically, then a way to destabilise tradition and play with the unconscious as Dada did. This also included a new honesty in purposefully exaggerating the fake nature of it to reinterpret advertising and fight the dullness of convention. Not much later it went through another transition, during which it became more about shining a new light on something deemed ordinary and uninteresting, which lead to the addition of a second way in which advertising can be poetic: the reforming of what the world has to offer into something new and interesting. It is public, yet has the potential to be incredibly intimate. A poster ad needs to deliver the necessary information with minimum means. Its power therefore comes from the distillation of the desired message to its essence in a new and captivating way, which is another way in which McStay defines the poetics of advertising.
But with the internet and technology becoming increasingly integrated into day to day lives there was another flux, from read-only to read-write media and with that the mutual participation in conversation between brands and consumers like never before. Where before advertising always tried to interrupt and demand attention, without caring much about relevance and to gain without giving back, this strategy is not working in modern society anymore. The 21st century consumer demands the truth, dedication and engagement from brands, which those, seeking to sell, are increasingly trying to fulfil. This is currently done by first getting the audience’s attention and then keeping it by offering interesting and interactive ways to involve that brand into a person’s life step by step, building a loyal customer base that then has the potential to keep growing more and more, almost more so through personal recommendations than through what is traditionally seen as advertising.
It is and endless process of finding new ways to get heard in a world that is getting ever noisier. Therefore, advertising still offers endless exciting possibilities of content creation, unexplored mediums, unthought of ways to engage directly with the consumer, even more effectively than we do now and it is highly encouraged to go out and seek them. It is spreading into every aspect of day to day life, through games, apps, social media, etc. and there is no way of stopping it.
Refinery29 for example found a brilliant way of integrating a campaign into everyday life, by hosting yearly interactive museums showing art pieces that the audience can engage with and experience. This includes things like VR painting, a silent disco with touch-sensitive floors and walls, mirroring installations and much more. (Refinery29. (2016))
Another campaign that has proven to be successful is the McDonalds App in Austria. It allows to collect points per purchase called “M”s that can be traded for specific products along with competitions, prize drawings, games and seasonal features like an advent calendar, all underlined with outdoor, print, TV and digital ads.
In conclusion, there is no use in complaining about advertising invading personal and public space, but instead it should be seen as a means of lots of exciting new opportunities to find the poetics in advertising.
ANDREW McStay. (2013) Creativity and Advertising: Affect, Events and Process. Chapter 3: The Poetics of Advertising.
WILLIAM M. O’Barr. (2005) What Is Advertising? (Volume 6, Issue 3) [Online] Available from: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/193867 [Accessed: 12 December 2018]
WILLIAM M. O’Barr. (2007) What Is Advertising? (Volume 8, Issue 4) [Online] Available from: https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.falmouth.ac.uk/article/227198 [Accessed: 12 December 2018]
Refinery29. (2016) Exploring 29Rooms with Lucie Fink. [Online Video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=125&v=R9x82ZMJnuM [Accessed: 12 December 2018]
McDonald’s Austria App. [Accessed: 12 December 2018]
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