"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