‘Whether its software and microchips or music to swing your hips, we’ve got it.’
That’s the line from one of the ‘mash up’ images in a CNA campaign by Jupiter JHB. The campaign morphs together images of famous people, with some interesting results to make the point of CNA’s wide product range.
The line above belongs to Bill Presley, a visual mash up of Bill Gates and Elvis Presley.
The campaign includes mixes of the likes of John Lennon and Albert Einstein as John Einstein and Queen Elizabeth II and Mother Teresa as Queen Teresa.
And in a move that the Huffington Post describes as ‘controversial’, the most eye-catching mash combines Adolph Hitler and James Dean as Adolf Dean.
The images in the series are quirky and arresting. But I have to wonder if the Huffington Post and AdFreak are right in saying the Adolf Dean image will provoke a storm of outrage. Is using and image of Hitler in this context apt? Or is it just another example of clanging commercialised insensitivity?
All kinds of images inform our cultural consciousness, good and bad. And advertising tends to work best if it speaks to and has meaning within that cultural context. What makes Hitler any less of a cultural reference point for dictators than Marilyn Monroe is a cultural reference point for pin ups? What do you think?
Advertising Agency: The Jupiter Drawing Room, Jhb, South Africa
Chief Creative Officer: Graham Warsop
Creative Director: Thomas Cullinan
Art Director: Dana Cohen
Copywriter: Shane Durrant, PJ Eales
Illustrator: Wayne Trotskie
Posted by Kate Wolters. Follow her on Twitter.
I think it’s an original and clever way to mix imagery and context to draw attention in our overloaded information age – the human mind quickly recognizes attributes of the famous person and then realises the context is different to what is expected. A clever use of the ‘double-take’ mechanism humans have in this scenario.
As to using Hitler and the sensitivity issue – I agree, it’s part of history and I don’t think anyone can be offended, great art is never politically correct, else it would not be art, it would the equivalent of elevator music, i.e. pointless.