Thursday, March 12, 2009

Art Response 7

Last class we saw a marketing tactic by GE of using art to convey an idea or product they are trying to sale. I am not saying that commercials can not be an art forms themselves, but in GE's example and the example I am about to give, these two companies push beyond the normal advertising of photographs or film and use less conventional methods.

Frito Lay's recent campaign features a series of animated shorts that end up conveying why it's brand of chips and dip are made for each other. The site, www.madeforeachother.com is completely interactive and immerses the viewer in a new and colorful world full of different characters. This strategy is successful in my opinion because it still sells the product but it makes the viewer less aware of it. They become interested in the actual artwork instead.


The site takes a while to load but it greets the viewer with an interesting loading screen in which the counting numbers greet each other then drift off to space. Depending on the speed of the computer and internet, the process can take several minutes or 30 seconds. These numbers count to 100. When that animation is finished it takes the viewer to the actual world of these characters.



The Frito Lay site really enforces the idea of "made for each other" by making the site into a game where the viewer unites the lost partners by clicking on the character and then its partner. An animations plays and then they return to their regular states most of the time. Inside of this game there are other games and even movies of the commercials often shown on TV.
It can be very hard sometimes to drag the screen but this could be mouse issues and not the fault of the website. Not all characters do what I expected them to do. I think some of them do not have partners, and if they do, it was hard to find them. Nevertheless I was entertained by this site.

This website, and the GE flash piece can show how powerful flash can be as a program.

No comments:

Post a Comment