21st Century Advertising
Artist Statement
This project explores ways advertising is shown to us in the 21st century. Advertising was shown in newspapers in the early 1700’s and has evolved over time to include other mediums such as magazines and billboards. The 20th century saw major technological improvements with the invention of the television, the Internet, computers and mobile phones. Advertisers took advantage of these new products. Now, we as consumers see advertisements on our tablets, phones, computers, televisions and anywhere else advertisers can place them. With this new technology, what type of advertisement do we pay more attention to, the email or the television advert? Or do we simply see them all, seeing subconsciously? Whether this is a bad or good thing is another matter, here I wanted to explore how often we see them and if we really pay adverts any mind.
We see adverts in our own homes, from when we wake up to the end of the day. People who wake up early enough will find nothing other than teleshopping before 8am. In some of the biggest cities in the world, advertisements shine bright on electronic billboards, ‘As places filled with mobile crowds and mass transit, city streets became forums for advertising.’ (Sturken and Cartwright, 2009) Piccadilly, London, is one of the most famous electronic billboards sites, with thousands of people passing everyday. Times Square, New York and Tokyo, Japan and other cities have these expensive billboards. People local to these places walk by these adverts, seemingly paying little or no attention to them. While tourists stop to photograph these colour displays.
