Expensive Taste=uniqueness

The author Norman Douglas once said, “You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.” A significant ideal of American culture has always been the idea of social mobility. America was founded on the idea that a person can rise beyond the circumstances of their birth and reach the highest levels of society. Advertisements of the twenty-first century often reinforce this age-old idea. I have chosen a Venus Jewelry ad for my primary analysis. The ad features a young woman emerging from a pool at what appears to be a palatial resort, being attended to by three servants. It comes from the Venus Jewelry website, whose catchphrase is “Bring out the goddess in you.” This ad is a visual reference to a well-known piece of art, a practice which is becoming more and more common in modern advertising. Many modern advertisements appropriate classic art forms in order to create a desire for wealth and social mobility.
This ad is a visual reference to Boticelli’s “Birth of Venus” (1486). Thus, the ad appropriates the classic image of Venus rising out of the sea and replaces it with a model coming out of a pool. The original painting featured cherubs hovering in midair clothing the naked goddess as she rode out of the ocean. In this ad, the cherubs have been replaced by a pool boy with a towel and a waiter and waitress bearing fruit and drinks. Though not simply a mechanical reproduction of the original painting, this ad still appropriates the overall aesthetic of the painting to convey its message, relying on the aura of the original to create desire within the ad.
Though the ultimate goal of the ad is to sell jewelry, the ad creates a strong desire for class and taste by associating Venus Jewelry with Boticelli’s world-renowned painting. Seminal artworks like “Birth of Venus” are most often associated with the upper echelons of the art world, a world of wealth, taste, and superiority. Thus, the ad is equating Venus Jewelry with not only Botticelli’s painting but with the art world and all of the upper-crust prestige that comes with it. This allows the ad to portray the desire of lower and middle class people to rise to the upper class. But not just the upper class, the highest level of the upper class. Someone with such a personal connection to such an important Botticelli painting would clearly represent the greatest level of culture. Since time immemorial, less “cultured” people have aspired to the top rung of society. It has always been a profoundly American ideal that, no matter who you are, you can leave behind a meagre upbringing and become a beacon of social superiority. This ad leads you to believe that all that is required to reach the top of the social mountain, all you need to do is buy Venus Jewelry.
Appropriating art works into advertisements has become increasingly popular in the twenty-first century. In my second ad, Dolce and Gabbana has dressed a group of models in what appears to be eighteenth century clothing and arranged them in a garden scene. The artistic appropriation of this ad does not come from a specific work of art, but rather from a general group of works. This ad is aesthetically very similar to the innumerable garden scenes and portraits painted in the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century.
Just like the previous ad, this ad relies on the aural power of the works of art from which it draws inspiration to create desire. Portraits from the time period this ad represents were essentially the domain of the upper class. Only someone of wealth and importance could afford to have a portrait commissioned. Thus, Dolce and Gabbana is implying in this ad that by wearing their clothing, you will be a person of wealth and importance. Therefore the ad also creates a desire for social mobility. The ad tells us that if we buy Dolce and Gabbana, we have the chance to rise beyond our current social status.
Advertisements in the twenty-first century often appropriate classic art forms to establish desires for social mobility and wealth. Such desires have been the driving force behind consumerism since advertising was invented. Advertisers know exactly how to play up people’s fears and insecurities regarding class issues to keep the money piling up for their clients. It is highly unlikely that the average consumer will break this trend any time soon.

Joseph Otterson
TA: Laura Bennett