"Made-Out-Of-Our Product" Contests

At the intersection of marketing and art is the “made-out-of” contest. These contests are company sponsored events where consumers are challenged to use a product in a novel way, usually different from its regular use, to make something unique.

As a marketing tool, these contests get consumers to think about and interact with the product in a prolonged manner. The benefit to the company is that the artists may come to know more about the product, or at least may develop a stronger relationship it.

More importantly, is that the art is often clever, surprising, or impressive in workmanship or function. So non-artists may pay attention to them when the work is finally displayed. This can increase affection toward the brand and build brand awareness.

In addition, these consumer contests often get the attention of media. Fix a duct and or a broken window with duct tape and no one cares. Make a dress and matching tuxedo out of duct tape and everyone wants to see it. So contests of this sort derive inexpensive publicity.

One school of thinking on the subject of creativity is that truly creative ideas are more likely to be generated when one is placed under constraint. So what these contests do is force artists to generate and execute creative products, where the constraint is the firms’ promoted product. Indeed some of the creations are both stunning and fantastic.

Of course, because this art is sponsored, an element of the artists message may be hindered. So one rarely if ever sees subversive, or critical pieces, nor much work that elicits negative emotion, toward the sponsoring brand in particular.

Frequently the very idea of these contests comes not from the sponsoring companies, but from artists themselves. Only after learning that consumers have adopted their products for more creative purposes do many companies realize that there is an opportunity for commercializing the idea.

Below are some examples, of both recent and historical “made-out-of-our-product” contests.

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Ivory Soap

One of the earliest “made-out-of-our-product” contests was held by the makers of Ivory Soap. According the company’s website (http://www.ivory.com/purefun_history.htm), the first Ivory Soap sculpting contest took place in 1924. The contest was the brainchild of public relations master Edward Bernays. It seems that Proctor and Gamble, the makers of Ivory, felt that children disliked soap, because they disliked having their faces washed by their parents. Bernays was asked to find a way to give children more positive feelings about soap. His idea was a contest where children would carve soap bars into sculptures which, when submitted, could be awarded prizes and displayed.

The idea to use soap as a sculpture medium was not Bernays’. At the time, stone and bronze sculptor Brenda Putnam was already advocating using soap as a way to make studies prior to beginning work. Bernays just borrowed the idea. So Bernays and P&G found insight in the art community, and then developed the idea into one that would involve many more of its consumers.

The Museum of Public Relations has a fabulous video of Bernays explaining the development of this contest which may be seen here: http://www.prmuseum.com/bernays/bernays_video_ivory.html.

Below are some soap carving winners from the third annual competition in 1927.




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Duct Tape (or Duck Tape)

According to the website (http://www.duckbrand.com/Duck%20Tape%20Club/history-of-duck-tape.aspx ) Duck tape (sometimes called duct tape) was originally designed by the Johnson and Johnson Permacel division as a strong flexible tape that could be used by soldiers in World War II to create quick waterproof seals for ammunition cases and to make on the go patches and repairs. After the war was over it was sold as home repair aid, performing many tasks including holding air ducts together.

Since the year 2000, perhaps in an effort to highlight its versatility, Duck has sponsored a Prom contest, where participants make both tuxedos and dresses from multicolored tape. Like the Ivory soap example, Duck did not come up with the idea to make clothing out of their tape. Tim Nyberg, one of the authors of The Duct Tape Book, tells me that he found an example of a "Duct Tape Man" Halloween costume created in the mid 1980s. Patti Sack of Shurtech makers of Duck brand tape, tells me that her company’s idea for the prom dress contest came about after the consumer affairs department started getting calls from people inquiring about colors, patterns, or prints that might be available for use in duct tape prom dresses of their own. More recently, Duck has started the Stick or Treat contest contest that asks consumers to create or decorate Jack-o-lanterns using Duck tape.

Below are some 2010 finalists in Duck’s prom dress contest. To see more go to Duck's website at http://www.duckbrand.com/Promotions/stuck-at-prom.aspx .



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Scotch Tape

3M’s Scotch Tape sponsors an annual “Off the Roll” sculpture contest in which participants must create 3-D sculptures from rolls of Scotch® Heavy Duty Shipping Premium or High Performance Packaging Tape. ( http://www.offtherollcontest.com/main/Rules.aspx ). The rules stipulate that at least 90% of the sculpture must be tape alone, with up to another 10% being other materials.

Here are a few of the winners from the 2011 contest.



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Rio Grande Texas Citrus Fiesta

A lesser known contest of this sort is the Texas Citrus Fiesta costumer contest. This event began in 1932, supported by Rio Grande Valley farmers and businessmen. This contest requires designers to create costumes decorated entirely with Rio Grande Valley grown plants and plant materials.
(see: http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth21316/ )
(see: http://www.themonitor.com/articles/valley-46609-citrus-event.html)

Below is an example from of a dress made out of citrus peels.



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Red Bull

Making art from discarded tin cans is nothing new. A book entitled Making Tin Can Toys was written by Edward Thatcher in 1919 (see: http://www.lostcrafts.com/Tin-Toys/Tin-Toys-Main.html) but those skills have translated into brand awareness for Red Bull who has been sponsoring the Art of Can contest and exhibitions since 1997 in major cities around the world. Red Bull encourages “budding artists” of all ages to use Red Bull cans to create sculpture, video, images, and models that are “beautiful, colorful, clever, amusing, or outrageous.”
Below are examples of winning entries from the 2010 Miami and Dallas exhibitions.



Although most artists go the route of cutting and reassembling cans to create sculpture, Anders Hattne, a motion graphic designer from Spain created a music video featuring percussion created with Red Bull cans.

You can enjoy that video here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-HGLA6SvfQ

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This blog explores artists that incorporate or exploit conventions of business or marketing in their work, and the use of art by business and marketers. Please share your comments and examples with me at http://www.blogger.com/citizen@citizengershaw.com

Field Trip to the Austin Art Fair

This weekend the Art Alliance of Austin,Texas held the Art City Austin festival (http://www.artallianceaustin.org/). The event is a fairly typical art fair production where artists and crafts people line a city street and present their work for sale in a series of collapsible tents. I took a tour with an eye toward seeing how these artists, who make (at least part of their) living incorporate conventions of marketing and business into their work. Below are some terrific examples.

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David Petr (www.artiphact.com) is both a photographer and an archeologist of sorts. His Artiphact collection is made up of photographs that highlight and pay homage to individual discarded or slightly decaying products and advertising. The large scale and simple framing give new importance and sense of nostalgia to what would otherwise be overlooked. Included in his subjects are details of packaging; bottle caps, soap bars; signage; a will return clock, gas price sign; as well as tickets to amusement park games and a retail display for, of all things, lucky rabbits' feet.


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Rick Abram's (http://www.rickabrams.com/) business cards have a twinkling photo of (his?) eye with the Barbara Kruger like imperative to “Buy My Art.”
His work takes pop art to an extreme by creating multilevel images on glass. He presents brightly colored and crisp images of popular culture icons including cartoon characters, comic book covers, and representations of product packaging.
For example, one of his pieces uses the pixilated graphic art style of Lichtenstein but juxtaposes a purple pixilated image of the Mona Lisa with a close up of a woman’s smile with the word “Fresh” as one would see in a toothpaste or mouthwash advertisement. Others display images of brand names, motel signs, and close ups of packages of Life Savers and Wonder Bread. I stood at Abrams’ display for a while to listen to people’s comments. Faces lit up with recognition of the brands and products and people openly conversed about their recollections of using these products. You can see videos of his work at (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWsU45dLfEQ&feature=relmfu) Below is a screenshot from Abram's website(http://www.rickabrams.com/)



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Carl and Betsy Crum (www.texasmontage.com)make customized photomontages to represent various cities around Texas, largely by incorporating the signs of local businesses. It makes an interesting statement on how we perceive the uniqueness, charm, and character of cities in part by the companies that do business there and the variety of locally made products that are sold. Even if we don’t frequent these businesses, their signs are a part of our landscape and become familiar to us in a personal way. So the collection of signs simultaneously cues memories and emotions tied to the location.




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Sheryl McDonald (http://www.jimmydmcdonald.com/about%20Sheryl.htm) uses retired mannequins as her canvas. She uses photographs and images of paintings to create a themed collage that becomes the mannequins’ skin. The colorful effect and the human form is very inviting. Yet, to fully appreciate the images one must come close to the form that is both naked and vulnerable, and the stillness of the human form, still set in the often relaxed poses of store mannequins can be discomforting. Overall, there is a moment of recognition that these are indeed the mannequins that are intended to be moderately attractive forms, meant to accent and display clothing. In service, they are servants, forced to become businesslike, outdoorsy, sexy, sophisticated, or simple, to serve the retailer. What McDonald has done is taken these tools of merchandising into the foreground, and given them personalities of their own.




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Finally Roderick Stevens (www.restevensart.com) works in a number of media, but of interest, is his oversized reproduction of an Etch-a-Sketch that he calls the Da Vine A Sketch. Stevens said he has made three of these, the first from wood and the others by molding resins. Seeing it is exciting. People rush up to it, point to it, tell others about it. Here is a mass produced item that so many people enjoyed (and struggled with) as children but that they rarely think about as adults. The Etch A Sketch was a license to explore without cost. Grab the little white wheels and go. Seeing this giant version reignites this creative energy and desire to play.



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This blog explores artists that incorporate or exploit conventions of business or marketing in their work, and the use of art by business and marketers. Please share your comments and examples at citizen@citizengershaw.com

Knock It Off

In the early 1900s the J. L. Mott Iron Works was busily mass producing porcelain bathroom fixtures in a factory in Trenton, N.J. One after another, identical, silky smooth, gleaming white sinks, toilets, and urinals came off the assembly line to be installed in bathrooms around the world.

But one day in 1917, it is reported, the artist Marcel Duchamp bought one of these fine urinals, plunked it down on a little pedestal, signed it “R. Mutt 1917” and declared it art.

Naming the piece Fountain, he submitted it to an exhibition, and began the idea of the ‘ready made’ in the art world. Artists could simply take what others had made, do very little, if any manipulation, and ask us look at it in a new light, often poking fun at our relationship with products of mass production.

Of course it wasn’t until the industrial revolution of the 1800s that mass production became a regular part of society. In Wealth of Nations, one of the biggest wigs of the modern economy, Adam Smith, described a factory that made lowly straight pins. He lauded the value of dividing up the labor, giving every person a small part of the process of pin making, and having them do that job over and over again. Division of labor, together other innovations of the industrial revolution like interchangeable parts, specialized tools, and economies of scale, made things cheaper, faster, and in greater quantities than ever before.

In addition to things becoming more available and less costly, they also became, in a way, magically perfect. The idiosyncrasies of things that had been made by individual craftspeople were eliminated through design, reusable molds, and controlled manufacturing. Producing identical products, each one exactly like the one before it, was a fantastic trick on nature; a dazzling control of materials.

Mass production offered other benefits to consumers too. For example, it may have brought consumers closer together. For example, identical products ensured that consumers everywhere had very similar experiences. People around the world could wear the same clothes, eat the same foods, hold the same tools, and even piss in the same urinals. Buying these products also meant equality. Consumers could know that they all received the same quantities of raw materials, the same assembly, the same quality, and the same fair deal.

Of course industrialization had its costs. Among them was the increased distance that now existed between consumers and the products themselves. Division of labor meant diminishing pride and personal responsibility for what was produced. In addition, the increasing complexity of products meant that standards were set that individuals could never hope to reach by producing things on their own. Specialized tools and processes meant that the cost of individual production was out of reach of most consumers. As a result the bulk of what was made shifted out of the hands of the consumers into the hands of business. So one interpretation of Duchamp’s Fountain is that it is a reaction to the alienation caused by industrial revolution. Taking a mass produced item and redefining it as a form of personally produced art can be seen as a reclaiming of some of the loss caused by industrialization.

This idea can be seen in more recent work as well.


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In her Ersatz series, Zoe Sheehan Zaldana (http://www.zoesheehan.com/) looks at seemingly simple common objects, and recreates them on her own. Her projects include a wooden match,



a paper bag (hers is on the left),


a life jacket, and paper towels. The results are stunning, both because they are virtually indistinguishable from those that were mass produced, but also because they lead us to consider the difficulty and effort required to accomplish these tasks and a feeling of futility in the endeavor. More importantly, one can’t help but judge, and the first criteria is naturally, how close her handmade version is to the commercial version. So the work highlights how we treat mass produced items as better than or at least a worthy standard against which we judge. Returning to Duchamp’s Fountain, there is some speculation that his readymade urinal was anything but, and that he too had created rather than purchased the urinal (see: http://www.economist.com/node/15766467?story_id=15766467 and http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Marcel_Duchamp/)

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Like Zoe Sheehan Zaldan, Tom Sachs (www.tomsachs.org) builds stylized replicas of mass produced items using a variety of materials. In his Cameras series he builds models of branded cameras from wood, cardboard, and ceramics. Their imperfect look has a desperate appearance of trying to be like the mass produced versions of the products, but not quite arriving.


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In a more collaborative effort, Stephanie Syjuco created the Counterfeit Crochet Project (http://www.counterfeitcrochet.org/index.html), in which she and other knitters and weavers create handmade personalized versions of designer handbags.



The results as she says are both “homages and lumpy mutations.” Seeing her work as both mocking and celebrating the brands and products she copies. By making these products themselves participants are responding to exclusivity of high priced designer brands, by taking control of the production. Stephanie points out that Crochet is itself one of the easiest of the creative crafts, and so her use of this everywoman citizens' process to produce replicas of products intended for the minority wealthy, she comments on the differences individuals have in access to the market place.

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Finally, Todd Wilbur uses mass produced iconic food items as his medium. Taking control back from the food industry, Todd performs for us, showing us how we can simply, in our own kitchens, prepare such automated delights as the McDonalds Big Mac and the Hostess Twinkee.


Unlike Stephanie Syjuko and the Counterfeit Crochet Project, Todd chooses some of the least expensive consumer products as his targets. But these products are iconic in part because of the magical consistency that seemingly only machines can deliver. As one freind of mine once asked, "Is Wonder Bread really baked? Or is it just somehow produced?" But watching Todd satisfies us that if we choose to make it so, this perfectness may not be entirely out of our reach. For a video of Todd making Twinkees click here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yeyy4mQoes)

Universal Product

For business, the UPC barcode represents an advancement in product identification, inventory control, and cost saving automation. Since it’s introduction, marketers have been able to easily track the movement of products from production, to warehouse, to market shelf, to cash register. Near instantaneous information has improved manufacturing planning, transportation, and merchandising. The data collected have improved processes in pricing, targeted marketing, and cross promotions.

As a symbol for artists the ubiquitous barcode has come to represent the culture of consumer packaged goods, imprisoning automation, and dystopia. Its simple ever present black and white lines are easily observed and recreated by anyone, yet the meanings and values are out of reach of citizens, held only by businesses, read and interpreted with lasers, scanners, and microprocessors.


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The first UPC barcode ever scanned was in a supermarket in the heartland of the USA, a supermarket in Troy, Ohio. It was in 1974. A celebration of our collective future and technology, it is fitting that the first product was Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum. What could be more disposable than a product that acts like food, but is meant to be thrown away before it gives any real value? More telling perhaps was that it was not a single package, but a bulk 10-pack of gum, hinting at the coming explosion of consumption and obesity to follow. The package now hangs as an artifact of American culture in the Smithsonian.


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Today the UPC barcode is often used by artists as a convention to react to or celebrate overt consumerism.


Artist Scott Blake has been creating portraits of famous people and celebrities using barcodes from products related to their persona. For example, his portrait of Oprah Winfrey is made up of barcodes from books on her Oprah Book Club list. Elvis Presley uses barcodes from music CDs and Andy Wharhol, of course, uses barcodes from cans of Campbell’s Soup.





You can see more of Scott Blake’s work at http://www.barcodeart.com/artwork/index.html


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Many other artists have incorporated bar codes into their work. Designer Artemy Lebedev playfully hides barcodes in altered photographs of natural settings and everyday objects. Lebedev invited others to create similar hidden barcode posters and he offers a wide range of work at his website WWW.Art.Lebedev.com






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Economist and sociologist Max Weber once described modern economic society the concern for material goods as having turned from a saint’s cloak to an iron cage. The vertical lines of barcodes lend themselves to images of cages and prisons, and this theme of imprisonment and escape from modern society, technology and commerce is fairly common in barcode art.




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Other artists use barcodes to highlight the often jarring interface between the human experience and the dehumanizing aspects of mechanized culture. So we see many images using barcodes adorning human forms, and even as tattoos.



For an outstanding display of barcodes as tattoos and street art in their many forms head over to Jet City Orange: http://www.jetcityorange.com/barcodes/tattoos/ and http://www.jetcityorange.com/barcodes/art/


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More recently, businesses have begun to see the barcode as an opportunity for expression to differentiate or at least draw attention to their packaging. A number of companies have sprung up that will create customized designs that function as working bar codes for existing optical scanners. Below are a few examples from Design Barcode Inc ( www.barcoderevolution.com ).




So what has become a convention of commerce has come full circle, owned by business, claimed by artists, retaken by business again.

Electric Performance

Thomas Edison is best known for being an inventor and innovator. Yet he was also a clever showman, and in an attempt to win over consumers, he electrocuted an elephant, and a horse, and many dogs, and even people.

At the dawn of the adoption of electricity Edison saw an opportunity to profit by being an energy supplier. His systems offered direct current power (DC), which is electricity that flows through circuits in one direction. A drawback of DC power is that it loses energy as it travels so many small power plants have to be located near customers for this system to work. Westinghouse, a competing company, soon developed an alternating current (AC) system which has the ability to maintain its power over great distances, a clear advantage.

Facing this competition, Edison sought to dissuade the public from adopting AC by trying to convince them it was unsafe. One way he did this was by involvement in the development of the Electric Chair as a means to execute prisoners. In particular he made sure that when first used, it would be powered by Westinghouse AC generators. Leading up to the use of AC power for killing people, Edison displayed the use of AC power to electrocute numerous animals. Perhaps the most famous of these displays was the 1903 electrocution of Topsy, the Coney Island Luna Park Zoo Elephant. Fifteen hundred people were on hand to watch.

The $10000 Sculpture

Artist Caleb Larsen says that the dollar bill acceptor is "a symbol of self-serve retail transactions." In the piece called The $10000 Sculpture (In Progress) the dollar bill acceptor shows up dismembered, not attached to any vending machine, but installed in an otherwise blank wall, with no indication of what it is for, nor what will be provided in exchange. In presenting the acceptor this way, Larsen exploits expectations about mechanisms used for transactions and the work makes a comment on our relationships with them. Despite offering nothing in return, one is tempted to (and many do) put a dollar in just to see what happens, or for the pleasure of having the dollar mechanically eaten by the mouth of the machine. In this way, the art may show there is some compulsion, or some pleasure, associated with interacting with the device, beyond the exchange that is usually made.

A second facet of the work is that it involves a contract between the owner/curator and the artist that stipulates donation of any money collected. In this way, Larsen further challenges the meaning of ownership, as it comes to mean an acceptance of responsibility, and a decision to enter into an ongoing relationship with the artist.

See this and more of Caleb Larsen's work at
http://www.caleblarsen.com/projects/10000-sculpture-in-progress/#1

Human Milk Cheese

Chef Daniel Angerers took his art to a new level when he saw the stored milk meant for his infant daughter going down the drain. As a chef, he could see the potential for this human product to be used in much the same way milk from other animals is made. He hasn't just made cheese, however. He has placed the cheese as a centerpiece in lavish presentations one would expect from a high end restaurant; "mommy's milk cheese with beets and romaine", or "rolled in dehydrated porcini mushroom powder with burned onion chutney."

Of course, many people find this disgusting. Research on what people find disgusting and why goes back as far as Charles Darwin (yep, Darwin). Recent researchers tend to think that while disgust may be an emotional reaction to things, such as foods, that may harm us, much of it comes from learned reactions to objects. Certain categories of things tend to be particularly likely to cause disgust. These include food, animals, body products, sexual deviance, body envelope violations, and death. In addition there are moral forms of disgust that come from certain violations of what are considered acceptable behaviors, such as incest, and unfair treatment.

This case of mother's milk cheese is a like a triple whammy. It comes out of a body hole, from a human animal, may have a sexual connotation, may be unacceptable because it is like taking milk from a specific baby. Moreover, the sacred relationship between a mother and a baby is sullied by this processing the pure milk into mundane cheese. Finally, its presentation is jarring. We don't expect this ingredient in a quality restaurant meal. So it contaminates the entire category by its very existence.

See more at http://chefdanielangerer.typepad.com/chef_daniel_angerers_blog/2010/02/mommys-milk.html