Art & Copy: Advertising in the 21st Century

Advertising is all around us. Cliche I know, but its true. We see them on buses, subways, store windows, magazines, websites, even text messages. Escaping ads has become an impossibility in our modern world.

On Monday, April 12th, Columbia College’s Marketing Communications Department teamed up with the Portfolio Center to put on an Art & Copy event at the 1104 S. Wabash Film Row Cinema. The event brought two established advertising executives to campus in conjunction with a screening of the 2009 award-winning documentary film Art & Copy.

The event began with John Tepachio (a copy writer) and Chris Gedress (an art director) talking about their experiences in the advertising industry; where they came from, and how they got to where they are now. They spoke about their moving around ad houses throughout the midwest, before finally ending up with firms in Chicago. Both Michigan State grads, they have since relocated here to the city as their jobs shifted.

One of the most important aspects of the industry that the panel centered around was the importance of being versatile in todays changing ad game. Never before have businesses been able to reach perspective costumers on the level now possible. They explained how, in todays market, an ad creator needs to be able to work many jobs. No longer are the days when you could just write copy or focus solely on the layout. Instead you may be called on to create every aspect of the ad itself.

Following a short question and answer period, the film Art & Copy was screened. The documentary, directed by Doug Gray, focuses on many of the most influential advertising campaigns of the last 40 years. Some of the executives featured in the film were behind such historic and long-lasting campaigns as Nike’s “Just Do It”, New York City’s “I Love NY", and the dairy industries moniker “Got Milk.” Both the panel and the film centered around quasi revolutions in the ad industry. The first being the creative revolution of the 60’s which was a focus of the film, and the current revolution in which advertisers are making the move to Facebook and Twitter to reach new costumers.

Such “revolutions” are what Columbia trains us for everyday. We are tasked with creating art in the ever-changing media landscape of the 21st Century. Whether filmmakers, musicians, or advertisers, we all are all creating works of art with which we hope to move our respective audiences. We as artists must keep up with these changes as we look to creating relevant pieces in a society inundated with so called “art”. As we make these changes we have to not only keep ourselves in our pieces but also bring aspects of modern culture into our work.

This event brought these realities to the forefront of discussion as seasoned industry professionals were able to interact and answer the questions of college students who will soon be entering the real world. We were told the importance of personal websites in order to reach perspective employers as even the ways in which we get hired have changed along with the job descriptions themselves. Most importantly, we have to believe in the art we are creating. As the art itself is ever changing, we as artists must be there to back up what we’ve created.