Tuning professional intuition to the rhythm and demands of our age, advertisers foresaw in time the dynamic potentialities of ancient art in affecting consumers’ habits. Huge amounts of money were invested, through advertising, in the image of antiquity, which in the long run has been proven extremely profitable. The sweeping wave of mass tourism had effectively paved the way for the impressive realization of this policy. The advertising potentials and range of ancient art was originally tested in the big, open European markets. The circumstances of the Greek market were a priori more favorable. However, while a limited, prodromal employment of antiquity in Greek advertising was apparent, the big boost came again from abroad. Nevertheless, certain differences in choice and quantity do exist between the foreign and Greek applications of antiquity in advertising. Sculpture and architecture are the leading subjects in the advertising repertoire, since they embody, more than any other art form, the “Classic ideal”, which functions as the most effective advertising temptation. The image of antiquity as it is mirrored in advertising, produces contradictory judgements, depending on the point of view and approach of the individual. However, it has become undeniable that, in most cases, antiquity in advertising functions against antiquity. Because advertising, through the misunderstanding and perversion, which usually coexist with the aesthetics of kitch, composes and promotes a distorted and vulgarized image of a sublime world. Thus, it annihilates the relationship of the public with the true values of antiquity.
Antiquity put into advertising
06 Aug 2012
by Archaeology Newsroom
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