Let's stop treating commercials like art, even if they're directed by Yorgos Lanthimos: 'What stage of capitalism is it when we start making film trailers for ads'

Can a commercial ever truly be considered art?

If you're a fan of Mad Men like me, you know how much can go into an advertisement. That show is all about the way advertisers mine our personal lives, hopes, fears, and deepest desires to sell us products. It's genius. And some ad pitches are truly moving, like when Don shows a slideshow of his family memories in a pitch for the Kodak "Carousel." But, outside of the world of Mad Men, can commercials ever become art in the way that a film or a painting could be? That's a question that came up when Grubhub, the food delivery app, dropped a teaser for their Super Bowl commercial, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the mind behind the Oscar-nominated film Bugonia and the Oscar-winning film Poor Things. When the teaser dropped on Twitter, the reactions were mixed.

Some saw the ad as a common avenue for directors to make a couple of bucks. Turns out it's hard to make money in filmmaking, especially as somewhat of an indie darling. Directors should be allowed to exercise their right to work gigs for cash… actors do that all the time. But some were put off by treating the commercial like it was going to be some kind of artistic event, especially by dropping a "trailer." Should trailers exist for advertisements, something that we probably don't really want to watch anyway? When we start treating commercials like art, we fall into a dangerous cycle that ends up devaluing art itself.

via FilmUpdates
via FilmUpdates
Whatever artistic merit might come from Lanthimos' commercial is incidental to its main reason for existing: to boost Grubhub's brand and generate revenue. Art that only exists to sell something isn't art, and when we treat it like it is, we lose something valuable. We're constantly being advertised to all the time, and if we start acting like that isn't anything other than what it is, we lose the purpose of art. Whatever you think the purpose of art is, whether it's to inspire, to challenge, to divert, or to provoke… hopefully, we can agree that it isn't there to subconsciously make us Grubhub a burrito. That said, I'll be tuned in when it comes time for the commercial breaks during the Super Bowl.
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