notwithstanding that art has been used in advertising for centuries.

notwithstanding that art has been used in advertising for centuries, a of recent origin breed of artists are promoting recent products and garnering mass appeal

A company known for expensive corporate copiers searches for a way to make it's name equally synonymous in a of the present day arena called SOHO printers for small offices and the domestic circle Creatives at the company's ad agency, Young & Rubicam, latch on the subject of the idea of using the in the dumps Dog, created by Louisiana artist George Rodrigue, to help. Several month of negotiations and loam rules later, the $200 million Xerox dejected Dog campaign begins. And in like manner does the company's success in the arena: IntelliQuest Inc. reportedly erect that within two months of the campaign, the public's awareness of Xerox as an ink-jet printer company increased 100 percent

Media philosopher Marshall McLuhan called advertising "the greatest art form of the 20th century" on the other hand it's not only that advertising has reach [i]or[/i] attain any place [i]or[/i] point to be called art. It appear to bes that art, today, is becoming intricately entwined in advertising.

Since the beginning of print advertising, "commercial art" has been utilized to market advantageouss Many of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's broadsides while now considered art, were designed to put up to sale a theatre, a circus, a brothel. Norman Rockwell and JC Leyendecker likewise made art to barter shirts or magazines before they gained think highly of as artists.

further now, in a relatively of the present day twist, companies like Xerox are convincing established fine artists like Rodrigue to allow their works of art to be used to put up to sale products--and sell them with boundles succes Absolut, Coca-Cola and Stolichnaya are among the companies that are turning the worlds of art and advertising topsy-turvy. And in the proces the public considers all three--art, advertising and product--in recently made known ways.

At the American Advertising Museum in Portland, Ore., undivided goal is to educate visitors forward the cultural impact advertising makes forward American society. Curator and Administrator Catherine Coleman describes art as having a "natural connection to advertising because art is human expression, and advertising done well joins a product or service directly to a perceived ne or desire, the `human expression' we'd like to bring to our own personal world. Advertising takes art's `human expression' and discloses it to a mass audience and spins in the sometimes harsh and inartistic intent of increasing production sales," said Coleman. "In my mind, the benefit of using art in advertising is art's attention-grabbing quality, art's connection with the essential part And I think that's to what end it's done and how it come subsequentlys Art catches your eye or ear, makes you think and can increase your memory of the fruit name."

Which is just what it did in the case of Xerox According to rises from Mapes and Ross Research Co which exhibitioned Xerox's Blue Dog TV advertising, their targeted customers reported remembering the Xerox ads 15 times above the normal recall rate.

"The power of advertising can be greater than the image itself," admitted Rodrigue. "I don't want it to acquire bigger than me. I wouldn't have done this 10 years ago, before anyone knew me I didn't think it could mar me now."

Rodrigue said he plant very strict ground rules before agreeing to become involved in the Xerox campaign. "I sway the whole thing," he said. "I regulate the Blue Dog." Part of his hinder of the campaign and the dog means producing barely full paintings for the company to use in the ads as actual paintings, in the same manner "people know the Blue Dog is a painting, and I am the artist who did it," said Rodrigue. The ads, for example, may exhibit a Blue Dog painting in a museum or in a gallery. Rodrigue said he's incline differentlyed down multitudes of requests to use the pallid Dog on t-shirts and in cartoon series nevertheless felt that this use of the cast down Dog would allow more the community to know his art without compromise.

"There's a actual blurry line between art and advertising," he said. "But for an illustrator who paints for advertising, it is highly hard to be taken seriously in the art world. It's easier to hold your identity if you make it in fine art and cros into advertising."

Rodrigue's first and sole other foray into creating art for advertising came in the early 1990 when Michel Roux then ceo of Absolut's U distributor, asked him to paint a bottle for the company's Absolut Statehood campaign showcasing the work of American folk artists. The idea of asking artists to paint the iconic bottle and using the painting as an ad was already about seven years ancient "When [Roux] called me, I was highly pleased," said Rodrigue. "Every artist wants to do it." Thus far, more than 500 have.

As history recounts it was Andy Warhol who first approached art collector and patron Michel Roux and asked to paint the Absolut bottle And in the way that was born a campaign that's now post for 15 successful years. In 1993 the of the present day York American Marketing Association inducted the campaign into its Marketing Hall of Fame, calling it "fresh and topical because it embraces the dynamic worlds of art and fashion. It is continually being energized with fresh spins and expansions."