Art in Advertising

Last updated: November 2021

In the last century, art and advertising have had a mutually beneficial relationship. Each discipline feeding from the other. For example, in 1962 Andy Warhol produced thirty-two canvases, consisting of a painting of a Campbell’s Soup can. The controversy the works helped stir put commercial illustration and even advertising as art and art as advertising into the minds of the public. Warhol later produced a wide variety of artworks depicting Campbell’s Soup cans and even other items like the sculptures of Brillo boxes.

Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup cans

Andy-Warhol-the-can by Gary Indiana

warhol-andy-1928-1987-usa-colored-campbell-s-soup-can

Brillo box – Andy Warhol sculpture – 1964

Alphonse Mucha, 1860 – 1939, was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist, known best for his distinct style. He produced many paintings, illustrations, designs, and advertisements. In 1896 he produced, what is considered in many circles a piece of fine art for an advertisement for Lefèvre Utile, or LU, that is a manufacturer brand of French biscuits, emblematic of the city of Nantes in São Paulo. The piece depicts members of high society enjoying conversation, champaign, flirtation and of course biscuits.

Alfons Maria Mucha Lefèvre Utile ad 1896

In 1954, Norman Rockwell was commissioned by Kellogg’s to produce a piece for the cover of the corn flakes cereal box. The resulting freckled, red headed boy is an example of several of fine art illustrations that Rockwell produced for advertisements.

Kelloggs Corn Flakes Norman Rockwell

To advertise Brazil’s Museu de Arte de São Paulo Art School, the advertising firm of DDB Brazil dissected famous painters like frogs in a biology class.

Dali dissected

Picasso dissected

Van Gogh dissected

In 2011 KitchenAid produced an advertising campaign inspired by artists whose works are representative of their periods. The campaign was created by DDB, Brazil, with illustrations from 6B Estúdio.

KithenAid ad insired in the style of Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka

KitchenAid ad inspired by Pop art in the style of Andy Warhol

KitchenAid inspired ad in the style of Modernist artist Henri Matisse

Surrealist KitchenAid inspired by Salvador Dali

In 2004 Banksy took the messages of advertising and commercialism to a dark corner by producing a provocative work featuring Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse merrily holding a terrified, naked girl’s hands on each side. The image of the girl was reproduced from a photograph of a napalm bombing of a Vietnamese village in 1972, which provoked worldwide horror and condemnation at the conduct of the war. The work was originally made on cartridge paper and has been exhibited internationally.

Banksy – Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse – 2004

Artist Etienne Lavie wondered what a city would look like if ads are replaced by fine art

Recently Italians were apparently upset over an ad featuring Michelangelo’s David toting a rifle.

Michelangelo’s David with a rifle

This is not the first time Michelangelo’s or other High Renaissance art work has been used in advertising.

Steven J. Schneider investing billboard ad using The Creation of Adam, a scene from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling

Say Media ad using Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus

Now I will leave you with a few more gems of art in advertising.

Civita Art School ad – artist-born-here-dali

Civita Art School ad, Warhol artist-born-here

The Agency-for-fine-art-transportations ad depicting a parody of dutch painters Johannes Vermeer’s 1665 famous Girl with a Pearl Earring

Lipton Tea ad inspired by Dali’s 1931 Persistence of Memory

The Print Ad titled Orbit: Arcimboldo was done by Mark BBDO Prague advertising agency for Orbit . It was released in Feb 2008.

We come full circle back to Warhol with an Orbits ad.

The Print Ad titled Orbit: Warhol was done by Mark BBDO Prague advertising agency for product: Orbit Chewing Gum (brand: Orbit) . It was released in Feb 2008

Cheers.