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Dutton's Argument Analysis

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Having explored Dutton’s theory through the lens of primitive art, I now extrapolate his philosophical viewpoint to modern advertising (a somewhat risky exercise, albeit one with many benefits). With this extrapolation, I can hypothesize that society treats advertisements that “further” the field much more reverently than they do advertisements that simply utilize old ideals. Simple observation reveals that this hypothesis may not be far off the mark. Creative Super Bowl ads, for instance, often garner much attention, with particularly innovative ads having the potential to redefine a company’s image. (While not a static magazine ad or billboard image, Apple’s famed 1984 “Big Brother” ad provides an example of such a commercial.) Yet even though …show more content…

I could, of course, explore this question by debating how advertising can become art in certain settings, but I seek instead to approach this debate through its more interesting converse, or the idea that certain objects are art because of the way societal experts advertise them to the public. To support this argument, I first call attention to the open, airy environment that likely surrounds the Brillo boxes in Warhol’s museum exhibit. Combined with the special lighting surrounding the boxes, museums containing one of Warhol’s exhibits present his works (in this case, the Brillo boxes) as having an atmosphere of mystique and weighty importance, which naturally induces people to consider the boxes as works of art. Yet museums are not the only entities responsible for advertising the boxes as art. Warhol himself did so, and he did so in a significantly more explicit manner. Indeed, as a former advertiser (James 23), Warhol was a shrewd marketer, adept at manipulating the prices fetched by his works. According to art economist David Galenson, Warhol frequently “concentrated his […attempts to sell his works…] on the wealthy, partying socialites who constituted the glittery jet set – the Beautiful people” (14). For these socialites, buying a box of Brillo soap from the supermarket would likely be a task relegated to a lowly paid assistant, but buying a Brillo box from the Andy Warhol himself – a Brillo box essentially advertised to them as a deep, profound commentary on the grand topic of American capitalism – would likely seem very appealing. Thus, given this example, I propose that we see certain works as art partially because of the way certain entities – from museums to the artists themselves – “advertise” them to the public. In fact, I controversially further this proposal by stating that while the Brillo box is the advertisement in

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