This museum was founded on the premise that art is part of everyday life," relates Larry Kardish, senior curator of the Department of Film and Video at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.
And in that spirit MoMA has long recognized commercials. For the past 20 years, the museum has been presenting the annual British Advertising Broadcast Awards program, placing those winners in the museum’s permanent collection. But up until 10 years ago, American spot work was represented in somewhat of a piecemeal fashion, with the department calling in individual ad projects of interest for possible inclusion in the MoMA archives.
From its inception in 1992, the AICP Show changed that by adding to the scope, depth and breadth of MoMA’s collection with deserving U.S. commercials. The time capsule now has a volume of work reflecting American society at different times. "We have and are continuing to build an invaluable collection which generations can consult and see," says Kardish.
The AICP Show in a sense sprung out of the aforementioned British Awards. Jon Kamen, now co-proprietor of bicoastal/international @radical.media, had been a dutiful observer of MoMA’s presentation of the U.K. spots for some time. He liked what he saw– not only the quality of the work, but the elegance of the presentation. Kardish recollects that Kamen called him in ’91 to broach the idea of an American showcase at MoMA similar in some respects to the Brit event. At the time, Kamen was serving as president of the overall AICP (and was a partner in the now former Sandbank & Partners). Kamen and Kardish met, laying the groundwork for what became the AICP Show.
"We agreed to host the program," Kardish states. "But what Jon and the AICP were proposing was quite different from the British show, which was broken down into product categories such as cereals, beers and apparel. Jon and his colleagues perceived the American program being of shorter duration, with craft categories like direction, writing, performance and special effects."
MoMA embraced the AICP Show, relates Kardish, because "we thought there were very interesting commercials being made that weren’t being viewed outside of the context of television. … The arsenal of film techniques is consolidated into a short time frame, making commercials an extraordinarily expressive art form."
Kardish adds that from the outset, the AICP Show concept seemed a natural fit in that MoMA has collected "films of persuasion" dating back to the 1930s. This persuasive collection has since grown in stature and as a looking glass into American society with the infusion of AICP Show honorees over the past 10 years.
Kardish has also seen an evolution of the U.S. ad art form: "Ten years ago, it would seem that the British commercialmakers were ahead of the Americans in terms of technique and freedom of expression. But in the past three or four years especially, it seems that the American commercials have grown subtler, wittier and are often paced the same way as the British commercials.
"There seems to be a lot more latitude in what can be shown and not said in American commercials," continues Kardish. "It’s more like British advertising where you often wonder what is going to be pitched and don’t find out until the end of the commercials. It’s making commercials by misdirection, and that’s happening more in American commercials. There’s a wit to the work that didn’t exist before. But keep in mind that the Brits said they learned about advertising from the Americans back in the 1960s. And, of course, Americans have always been strong in [filmmaking] techniques."
Beyond its contributing significantly to a permanent collection that does justice to the art and technique of the American television commercial, Kardish sees the AICP Show as offering another tangible benefit: "What has been exciting to me about the Show is that the AICP also recognizes student commercialmakers. That’s very positive. The AICP is encouraging film and video students to think of commercialmaking as an honorable occupation, which we at MoMA believe it to be. Commercials can be artful. And it’s an art form that’s constantly evolving."
