0 Rene Magritte

Rene Magritte was a surrealist artist who emerged during the advertising boom of the 1920s. His work often involved objects situated in irregular places giving them a different meaning and way of seeing things.

Through his work he responds to industrialism and modern living which was important at a time when transport through trains become common and new lifestyles and living.

Like advertising, Magritte explored the connections between words and imagery and how they reflected each other. Along with other surrealists he believed that the outcomes reflected would change constantly depending on the perception or society which he explained as being "a constant state of flux'.

His ideas are still used and influenced in advertisements seen today.

0 'So Clean' - A History of Creative Advertising

Sunlight soap was the worlds first packaged, branded laundry soap created by the Lever Brother. The success of the brand was down to the ads created by William Hesketh Lever which in cooperated modern art into advertisements: something that was still relatively uncommon.

Levers adverts were mainly aimed towards woman and played very well to their needs and societies happenings. For instance being more patriotic during the First World War in which they published a advert depicting how Sunlight Soap would help war troops. Adverts also urged wives and families to send tablets of Sunlight Soap to the front. Other adverts also had slogans such as "While quality exists, victory is assured" which would play very well on the feelings of anxiety that women during that time would have had.

0 Surrealism

Surrealism is very good way of catching peoples attention and is often found in adverts. Because the strange and oddity of surreal advertisements people are naturally attracted and interested in finding out more about the meaning behind the projection depicted.

With these set of Playstation 2 posters Sony used displacement surrealism to create a (even though quite unnerving) very interesting series of posters. 

I think that the fact that the posters are quite uncomfortable makes them more so intriguing  especially to a younger audience who the posters are aimed at.

The poster with the assortment of heads, I believe is an analogy to the way in which gamers are able to create their own avatar characters in game. 

With the bottom poster, it is trying to convey how a person is becoming the in game character. It representing how immersive gaming on the PS2 can be.

0 Myths and Ideology in Advertising

Roland Barthes says about ideology, in which he refers to as Myths, "is the connotative meanings that signs carry wherever they go; myth makes what is cultural seem natural."

An ideology is a unconscious ideal and expectation in which a consumer will conjure from a discreet or more obvious hinted advert.

In this mini cooper advert, the car has been placed next to a Trojan Horse (A mythical vehicle that was used in Homer's story 'Odyssey' to win and end the Trojan War) in order to compare its power and significance to the Trojan Horse generating a certain ideology of what the car will/could be like. It opens up the viewers mind for endless possibilities/hope for the car.

The text accompanying the advert say, "One is a legends carrier. One is a carriers legend", which further reiterates the exaggerated comparison.

Nike is also a brand that uses good mythology and ideology into their adverts but in a much more subtle way. The name Nike originates from the Greek Godess of Victory: Nike which straight away gives a slight nod to the possibilities when owning a Nike branded item. 

Their adverts mostly compromise of fit, healthy and attractive individuals who either run at incredible speed or jump to extreme heights: basically performing exceptionally well at certain sports