Michelangelo’s classic Statue of David transforms from chiseled physique to an out-of-shape form reminiscent of the “before” picture in a weight loss ad. The chubby David even grows an unkempt beard and holds a fork for some heavy indulging in pasta and meatballs.
There’s method to this artistic madness, though, when put in the context of the call for entries campaign for the 20th annual AICP Show & Next Awards. The Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) is introducing a series of case study videos which examine historically how great works of art were used as solutions to branding issues. The initial videos in the campaign are already accessible via YouTube and on the dedicated site www.isyouradvertisingart.com.
Italy: 1497 AD
The second video release–billed as “Case Study #61: The Vitruvian Man”–takes us on an A-V graphics tour to Italy that dates back to the late 15th century. A female voiceover relates that more than 100 years after the devastating impact of the Black Plague, Italy had a problem. We are thrust into 1497 AD in the City of Florence, at which point we see a continuous number readout counting deaths as compared to births. While the latter remains at zero, deaths mount dramatically. This disproportionate number of lives lost as compared to new ones entering the world tells us the plight of Italy’s population.
The challenge was clear: “Save Italia”–namely find a way to reverse a declining population. But why the decline? A smiling Mona Lisa knows as she points to a 99 percent figure, reflecting that nearly all women at that time felt that the male population’s overall attractiveness had dropped significantly.
Indeed men were paying less attention to personal care and more to pasta and meatballs as we see the Statue of David take on considerable poundage. His torso becomes more so before our eyes–as does facial hair. And then that earlier alluded to fork appears as does a table weighted down by food.
The voiceover continues, noting that with the national libido falling quickly–as we see the Tower of Pisa lean decidedly downward–the future of Italy hung in the balance. The solution: Bring back the Italian stallion by making “personal fitness top of mind” via the Vitruvian Man print campaign.
The Vitruvian Man is a famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the famed architect, Vitruvius. The drawing depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously situated in a circle and square. The drawing is based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by Vitruvius.
The messaging of the print campaign, says the voiceover in tongue-in-cheek fashion, includes the “forgotten notion of agility, muscles visible without having to flex, and the introduction of male maintenance (“manscaping” in reference to well-groomed private parts). All the while the image of Vitruvian Man is adjusted accordingly.
The Vitruvian print ad yielded profoundly positive results in Italy of yesteryear: personal exercise among males tripled, average body fat fell 31 percent and there was an 1,100 percent spike in sexual relations, leading to “frequencies of fornication not seen in over four centuries.”
As babies fill the frame, we see the Vitruvian Man has become the most recognized health and fitness campaign in history, outdistancing such pictured video releases as Billy Blanks’ Tae Bo and Jane Fonda’s Workout. An end tag relates the AICP Show campaign query: “All art is advertising. Is your advertising art?”
VCU Brandcenter
The slogan plays on the fact that all work honored by the AICP Show & Next Awards becomes part of the archives of the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in N.Y. Thus it’s only appropriate that devout students of the advertising art form created the new call for entries campaign.
So as it has since 2005, AICP enlisted the creative prowess of students from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Brandcenter who devised and produced the “All Art Is Advertising” campaign, including all the films.
The core VCU ensemble consisted of art director/video producer Brianna Lohr, copywriters/video producers Claire Wyckoff and Lane Karczewski, interactive art director Stephen Hadinger, strategist/project manager Kyla Wagman, strategist Gautam Ramdurai, and video editor David Satterfield.
