Is advertising an art ?

Advertising, such a big issue. Good or bad sector ? Artistic work or visual pollution ? The debate is vexed, since it refers to the conception people have about art, and to the definition they give to it. Moreover, it seems hard to see a sector whom the main purpose is to get as many money as it is possible as an artistic sector.

I would like to express my own opinion on this topic, considering my own experience that I got during my communication studies. Indeed, for three years, I have analyzed so many French posters, TV advertisements, fliers… I do not want to pretend that I am an expert, neither my opinion is the best to have. I just want you to be aware that my thoughts depend on the way I have learned advertising at university.

And precisely, I have learned advertising as an art. I have analyzed advertisements as pieces of art. I do not mean that it was necessarily considered as a noble production by my teachers. I mean that each time we analyzed advertisements, we were looking for symbols, signs, codes which made sens about the message spread by the object we were studying. After all (in France, anyway) you do the same when you are studying a painting from the 16^th century, for example. You look for all those elements the artist wanted to put in his piece in order to create a sens. It was already a form of communication.

But, can we call “Art” something that we study as an art ? Is it sufficient ?

I actually do not really know. But, I can add that, as in a painting, none of the elements that you can find in an advertisement are there by accident. All is perfectly well thought before the product is distributed in the public field. I want to come to say that there is a big work upstream. That is why, to me, some people think that advertising is a form of art. It is the result of a creation process, of a human reflexion.

During my latest studies’ three years, I have been asked to create some advertisements, imagining that they could be distributed in newspapers and other similar supports. I had to explain my technical choices, the different codes and visual strategies I was using, etc. The question is : was I feeling like an artist when I made them ? Actually, it was a form of artistic work, to me. Because of that creation process, in fact. And, I noticed that when I draw, paint, or create any illustration, for my own pleasure, the process is not so different : in the both cases, I am thinking about the final result I want to reach, about the effects on the future “readers” and it needs a lot of time to finish the work as I want it to properly be.