The art of advertising

UNESCO Courier, Dec, 1998 by Sophie Boukhari

Interview with Oliviero Toscani, Benetton art director and photographer

How has advertising changed with the emergence of the immaterial economy?

There is a crisis in advertising. The industry is lagging behind social trends, but it's so rich and powerful that it's very difficult for it to change.

In the early twentieth century advertising focused on a company's buildings and machines. After that it started presenting products. Then, since all products started looking alike, they could no longer be at the heart of the message. So in the 1960s advertisers started showing leggy models to sell cars. The long legs offered added value. The product took a back seat and what was sold was a symbol. The problem with this technique is that the message is always based on consumers' shortcomings and makes them feel guilty. It tells them, "if you haven't got this product, you're out of it." On the other hand, if you buy a certain brand of sports shoes you can play like Ronaldo even if you can't kick a ball.

A second technique is repetition. Professionals think people remember a product if they see the same commercial over and over again. That drives up costs. But all the commercials end up looking so much alike that you don't know which brand they're advertising any more. Who wins?The companies with the biggest guns, in other words the most money. Who pays?The consumer, because on average advertising accounts for 15 per cent of a product's sales price. People in the rich countries sink hundreds of millions of dollars into advertising every year. It doesn't make sense any more. The system is so sick it's not going to be around much longer.

Why should it change?

Because consumers are smarter than advertisers. The system worked as long as people were really interested in the products, because they needed them. But today, in the rich countries, they own enough shirts, sweaters and television sets for three entire lifetimes. So they consume less and better: more travel, more culture. They're also very well-informed and much more demanding. They think before buying. And many people, starting with youth, think that consuming is a way of integrating. They buy certain products to be accepted by society or their community. They take refuge in an imaginary world, while their lives are full of fear and unhappiness.

How should advertisers adapt to these new consumer patterns?

They have to be more creative, but the advertising industry couldn't care less about creativity. It wants to perpetuate the system to keep on living off it. The fact is that advertisers must explain the client company's philosophy. If they're successful, consumers will work out for themselves that the products are good. To capture their attention, advertising must become an artistic product in itself, like a play or a film. That has never happened because the only things that condition the industry are money and marketing managers, who are idiots. All they know how to do is repeat what's already been done.

To be successful advertising has to disconnect the message from the product and forget about marketing, which standardizes everything. I don't do the same thing other people do. I use products to focus on the major problems besetting humanity. I've proved that it can be profitable. Since I've been working for Benetton, the company has grown tenfold. Advertising people hate me but they have to admit that I've won.

Customized messages

Christian Blanchasse is the producer of Culture Pub, a television programme broadcast on France s M6 channel, and the director of the weekly CB News Communication. He agrees that advertising is facing the emergence of a new economy of abundance and more demanding, better-informed consumers. But he is also aware of the transition to an individualistic society and increasing audience and media fragmentation. "Twenty years ago everyone was watching the same two or three television channels. It was easy to develop a single message intended for the whole population. Today society and families are split up." This situation has led to the growing importance of direct marketing on mass campaigns. "Advertising is adapting by trying to understand people better in order to send them customized messages. More and more specialized companies are polling individuals and trying to figure out their personalities by overlapping all the information about them that they can get their hands on." Blanchasse predicts that new technologies will increase society's fragmentation. Yesterday shopping was a family affair. Today, "on Internet the individual is the one who chooses and makes the purchases. The world is changing."