Thursday 3 July 2008

Paint it red
This bank ad pisses me off.
Lily showed it to me last night, and she was breathing fire over it as well.
Let's begin with the neat little statement in the top left corner. Conservative, old-fashioned, narrow-minded, ignorant, reactionary. Wrong.

Then look at the picture and read the copy that goes with it on the opposite page (click on the image for a bigger one):If your son did this to your garage door*, wouldn't you be overjoyed?
Wouldn't you be proud?
We won't go into the fact that the idiotic, anal, despicable parents in this house — who've had the whole house re-painted the same institutional colour as the one next door! — clearly had no frigging idea their son was capable of making art like this.
There isn't enough space to go into all the angles of the utter wretchedness of this horrendous ad.
But now we know exactly the kind of people Citi Bank — and it's huge — appeals to.

*
Especially if you live, like we do, in the sort of ticky-tacky suburb full of ticky-tacky cookie-cutter houses just like this, that are the same colour (beige) and size (average), made of the same boring (cheap) materials, with identical doors, windows, roof-tiles, driveways, setbacks and mailboxes, and that all look as though they were built on the same wet Wednesday afternoon in a grey month in 1989 ...

6 comments:

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

That's why I gotta get out of here... before they kick me out! Nothing but garages to see and you wouldn't know anyone is living here, except trash cans come out Wednesday night!
Some people can't see beyond beige... such a loss.

Anonymous said...

Small minds, but unfortunately there's obviously a big market for them.

Google 'Banksy' for an amazing and political English street artist.

Anonymous said...

To me, that ad's just wrong on so, SO many levels. That were my son, he'd get a hell of a lot more than canvasses, I can tell you.

Anonymous said...

I'm an artist, I have an eye for aesthetically pleasing things, but still... I don't understand your anger. A house is a house. The painting on the garage door doesn't suit the design of the house anyway.
Leave the bank people alone; they're not small-minded, they're just being realistic. Love for art aside, how many people would appreciate that on their newly-renovated house?

Anonymous said...

p.s. I just read the bottom part of your post - and it just made me realise how well-off Americans must be if that's an average-sized, cookie-cutter house. Maybe it's because I live in the city, but that house seems pretty damn big and pretty to me...

Lesley said...

Where are you from, Amie?