What Are Artists For? Merrill C. Berman Collection: MoMA [ART]

John Heartfield's The Hand Has Five Fingers (1928), a campaign poster for German Communist Party 

The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Merrill C. Berman Collection

“The title ‘artist’ is an insult,” the German Communists George Grosz and John Heartfield declared in 1920. Grosz subsided into satirical painting and drawing, but Heartfield became a dedicated propagandist who cast Hitler as a puppet of capitalism and savaged centrist opposition to the tyrant’s rise. The cover of the show’s catalogue features Heartfield’s photograph of a worker’s soiled, forward-grasping hand, which was used for a poster promoting the Communist Party in a Weimar election in 1928. The image seems rather more menacing than rallying. It is at an extreme of the era’s politically weaponized design, which generally took less inflammatory forms in Germany and other European democracies. These countries incubated movements that are well represented in the exhibition but tangential to its Russian focus—Futurism, Dada, the Bauhaus. In Russia, there was no partisan campaigning because there was only one party. After 1917, it won the ardent allegiance of a generation of creative types who reconceived of the artist as a self-abnegating servant of the masses and the state—or who professed to, whatever their private misgivings. 

What is an artist, anyway? moma’s show stalks the question. The works on paper from the Merrill C. Berman Collection include designs for Communist posters and salad oil advertisements

Read more over at The New Yorker

Old Spice x Dikembe Mutombo's 4 1/2 Weeks to Save the World [VIDEO GAME]

This is awesome! A video game made to stop an actual event that might happen if an ancient civilization was as smart as we think.Saving the world has never been so easy, or so needed, or so video game based.

To play use the SPACE BAR + UP + DOWN + LEFT + RIGHT keys.


 via http://www.oldspicesavestheworld.com/

Scarlett Johansson x Iron Man 2 [POSTER]

Wink & the gun.
In theatres May 7th 2010.

IKEA's Paris Subway Displays [ADVERTISING]

Throughout the month of March the worlds favourite Swedish furniture big box invaded popular metro stations in the city of Paris, and decorated them with couches, and decals of bookshelves along with other IKEA accessories. Creative? Yes, and and worth the risk of never getting the smell of the homeless out all of this stuff.

via Fresh Home

World AIDS Day 2009: Mass murderer [ADVERTISING]

Most people (I would eventually like this be all people) carry a "Fuck Hitler/Stalin/Huessein" sentiment, but this is a unique take. An actually quite clever, incredbibly taboo, and risque ad campaign, but clever! Watch the equally clever, as it is erotic commercial here. Go get tested!

Jay-Z Rhapsody Commercial [VIDEO]

Who's the Don Draper who thunk this up? Watch it. Genius.

Nia Long Would Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur [ADVERTISING]

I'm not mad.

Actor Nia Long has teamed up with PETA to encourage people to be comfortable in their own skin and to let animals keep theirs by baring it all in a sexy ad.

spotted over at CL

Nike's 'Hyperize' Ad: Durant, Lewis, Iquodala Salute '90s Hip-Hop [VIDEO]

In a hilarious new ad, Nike pays tribute to the glory days of '90s hip-hop (hat tip to AdFreak). The folks at Nike have assembled a faux rap ensemble called the Hyperizers featuring the Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant, the Orlando Magic's Rashard Lewis, the Cleveland Cavaliers' Mo Williams and the Philadelphia 76ers' Andre Iguodala.

Lewis ("Ice-O") sports a Kid N' Play-esque hairdo, Durant ("Velvet Hoop") looks like he stepped out of a Tribe Called Quest video, and Williams ("Fog Raw")...well, his hairstyle is certainly from a simpler time. Actually, the same can be said for some of the lyrics in this ad.

via HuffPo

John Varvatos x ZZ Ad Campaign [ADVERTISING]

Original "Baaawwwssse" hogs.

A recent John Varvatos ad campaign featured the musicians from Franz Ferdinand but the latest ads reach a bit further back into the music archives. To match his rock and roll fashions he has chosen the members of ZZ Top to star in his FW09 campaign. View on Fashion reports that Danny Clinch, a regular collaborator with Varvatos, is behind the black and white photos which have the band's three members posing in the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. The ads look great, maybe every girl really is crazy about a sharp-dressed man.

via Luxist

Sprite Oral Sex Ad Banned In Germany [VIDEO]

Oh the EU!...or ewwww
Might be difficult picking a latter...

UPDATE:
The New York Press reports that a New York City-based director was responsible for the now-infamous Sprite ad, and that the spot was produced without Sprite's permission. The ad is the work of Max Issacson, and was not produced in Germany, according to the NY Press.

The NY Press spoke to John Jones IV, the male model pictured in the video: "The funny thing is, it's a spec commercial--it's not even real," Jones said.

Current TV initially reported that the ad had been banned from the air, for pretty obvious reasons. It combines oral sex and the desire for a refreshing Sprite to create a big finish that has to be seen to be believed. It even beats the climax of this similarly-themed ad.

WATCH: (UPDATE: Original ad was pulled from YouTube due to a copyright claim but you can view below courtesy of Young Turks here.

via HuffPo

Louis Vuitton: “Some journeys change mankind forever.” [ADVERTISING]

Photography: LOUIS VUITTON / ANNIE LEIBOVITZ

Louis Vuitton commemorates the 40th anniversary of man’s conquest of the Moon, elevating the theme of travel as a personal journey to a celebration of a voyage of unsurpassed significance for all mankind. The latest Core Values advertising campaign features Buzz Aldrin, who in the course of the historic Apollo 11 mission with Neil Armstrong on 20th and 21st July 1969, became the second man to set foot upon the Moon; Jim Lovell, the commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission in 1970, who - as the world watched with bated breath - heroically guided his crew back to the safety of Earth; and Sally Ride, who in 1983 became the first American woman to venture into space as a crew member on Space Shuttle Challenger.

The new Core Values visual will appear in the July 2009 issues of international titles, while louisvuittonjourneys.com will be launched by a video teaser on June 3rd ahead of its worldwide launch on July 2nd.

via Nitrcolicious

YSL La Nuit de L’Homme: Vincent Cassel [ADVERSTISING]

Photographers: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott

Victor Cassel, French actor and husband of Monica Bellucci, lends a sophisticated savoir faire to Jourdan Dunn’s sultry symbolism in this ad for YSL’s newest men’s fragrance.

via Fashion Time Magazine

Kanye West x Amber Rose for Louis Vuitton [PHOTOGRAPHY]

Given the hoopla over Ye’s bald headed bisexual love interest...he’s gone and flipped it! Tossed homegirl in a photo advertising campaign the Louis x Kanye collaborative sneaker line, photographed by Steve Shaw. Marketing genius, or just captain behaviour? A little bit of both?

More over at Ye's blog.

Drake x LRG 10 Year Ad Campaign [TORONTO]

Salute.

via OVO

1 Second Super Bowl Commercial [VIDEO]

This guy is hilarious! Video is from his interview on Leno last week...

P.S.
Damn Arizona!

FTL: Marilyn Monroe…wait, Scarlett Johansson?

D&G will be releasing a line of cosmetics this March...yadda yadda yadda...Scarlett is fine!

“We wanted to create makeup with a scent. Domenico and I remember when we were children and opened our mother’s handbags — the scent of her lipstick trailed out. I observed that when women open makeup, they smell it first.” Stefano Gabbana.

via Get Kempt

American Apparel x Porn Stars [ADVERTISING]

Often described by journalists and bloggers--and rightfully so--as bordering on soft amateur pornography, American Apparel fully embraces the reputation with a new wave of ads that feature women from the adult industry as models.

Read the rest of the story here.

Heineken Walk-In Fridge Commercial [VIDEO]

This is a beautifully hilarious piece of adwork!

Young Jeezy x Belvedere x Terry Richardson “Circulate” Campaign

I saw posters of this all over DC! See more here.

Gossip Girl Escapes Paparazzi In Her Nikes. [VIDEO]

For all the Gossip Girl fans...this nike commercial features Taylor Momsen and of course some Nike product. This ad features the Zoom Sister One+.

via Hypebeast