Critical evaluation of advertising art

I do not have much understanding of art except for prose and photography. There are websites where photographers and writers post their craft and seek feedback. Sometimes the critique is so ruthless that it might make the man cry. But at the same time, the only learning comes when experts can point out specific weaknesses that most people will ignore or would not point out because of politeness. Critique on the photography website 1x.com has to be so professional that if any user who writes pointers such as ‘I like colours in it’ or ‘it is a bit blurred’ is banned from the page for one week. It has to be very thoughtful critique that points out areas of improvement.

I wondered can there be a forum where confident professionals of advertising post their ads and seek critical opinion on the same. In my experience, most creative professional of advertising tend to get so sensitive about their work that a person rejecting their work has to have finer conversation skills like that of diplomats to give feedback without making them disappointed. Many people mention the similitude of a creative/ art director’s obsession with the idea as that of a mother for her child. I read an art director’s view some years ago who said that the critical evaluation on an advertising idea by strategic planning, client servicing or client sounds like some doctors come in white dress, come and take away your baby and do the examination to tell you whether the baby is alright. In fact the allegory of baby and mother is wrong with art, because a mother produces only limited number of babies while an artist can produce dozens of fine pieces of art. Ideas are not pieces of art; they are merely seeds for the plants. An apple tree is not disappointed of some of its apples are not ripe, so why should an artist be disappointed if some his work is not up to the mark.

Real artists are very humble people and driven by their convictions. They look at their own work more critically than anyone else does. This is why they are able to produce something that sells on its own. Martin Amis told in an interview that his father Sir Kingley Amis hated most writers, so no wonder he disapproved his son’s work too. Real artists are so confident that they will produce a piece of art just for the pleasure of it, even if it is not acclaimed by the majority and makes a commercial success, and even if it makes them unpopular. Advertising art is like a protected industry by the government, it survives because of vested interests. Nobody pays money to see an ad, unlike other works of art such as movies, music or novel. Social media has given some power to the consumers to really tell which creative they liked as most liked creative ads tend to go viral, however, that test is not a good benchmark either because most consumers would not look at the ad critically. They will only look at the entertainment value of the ad and will forward it as long as it makes them smile or think, without giving a hoot to what brand values have been communicated and what associations have been established. I saw an ad for Shangri-la hotels almost a year ago in which a man loses his way in a snowy mountain and after having tried hard, he falls unconscious. A pack of wolves that has been tracking the man, comes forward and snuggle him to save his life. The ad is very popular on YouTube, and I liked it on the first instance of it, but, I also felt that something is wrong here, although it took me sometime to point out what is wrong. It was the imagery of wolves that was associated with the hospitable staff of the hotel. It is not a pleasant imagery, wolves are after all animals. What if they change their mind before the man wakes up? If you cannot trust wolves, you cannot trust the employees of Shangri-la too. A consumer may not be able to tell what is wrong, but the subconscious absorbs all the cues and reacts to them silently. This is why critical evaluation of work, which will not sell on itself and require investments to be made public, is essential.