A German journey through advertising

By Kafil Yamin

BANDUNG (JP): Good advertisements can succeed in creating an enduring "product image".

The man in the street may feel he is a real gentleman not because his Gudang Garam cigarettes have great flavor, but because the product's advertisement proclaims they are the rokoknya lelaki (the man's cigarette).

A schoolboy plays basketball enthusiastically not due to the extra edge of his Nike shoes, but because ads convince him they are the choice of NBA stars like Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Horraco Grant. The boy feels he is linked to the game's best.

Success in creating a product image hinges on particular factors. One is aesthetic elements which attract the public. Another is the psychological relationship it develops between the product advertised and audiences.

With advertising the art of persuasion or seduction that nurtures and articulates the desires of consumers, commercial photography is the primary instrument of product-oriented, corporate image-enhancing tourism and professional advertising.

A commercial photo exhibition at the Bandung Institute of Technology, organized by the Goethe Institute, from March 30 to April 10, shows the decisive aesthetic element in creating product image in examples from Germany. Above all, it demonstrates the application of photography in advertising.

According to German photographer Manfred Schmalriede, commercial photography inevitably has more artistic control than photojournalism which is concerned with realistic, factual and authentic representation of ongoing events.

"In commercial photography, photographers stage-manage the presentation of products in order to enhance their public appeal. Thus, the camera serves to transpose concrete reality to the realm of fiction," he said.

Photos on display were produced from 1925 to 1988. Tracing the six decades, not only do the photos show the estheticism in advertisements, but also catch milestones of transformation in commercial photography.

In its early days, commercial photography combined text with photographic material, such as the detailed prospectus issued by Werbebau Advertising Agency for the Bochum steelworks in 1925.

Photographed objects were cut out so that designers could use fragments of the photographs to form a free composition. Fragments with a three dimensional or planar effect were juxtaposed with typographic elements to form a message.

Later, more variants of the steadily improving combinations of text and image were created through the use of different forms of photography, as well as of numerous new type fonts. Products were arranged facing the camera so that the text on their packing material replaced the typographic section used hitherto.

An apparently arbitrary arrangement of spilled coffee beans, a paper packet and a coffee cup in the photograph created by Albert Renger-Patsch for Haag coffee is actually meticulously organized on the basis of plan view, frame and configuration.

This simple presentation of products was then followed by a phase of decorative arrangements and sophisticated pictures composed of set pieces borrowed from the world of objects, such as those for Frigor chocolate, Odol mouthwash and Knize perfume.

Reconstruction projects in West Germany after World War II brought in North American advertising agencies and raised awareness among Germans that advertising was no longer simply a matter of commercial art, but a combination of solid knowledge of economics and psychology.

Designers and photographers harked back to the pre-Nazi era in order to regain full freedom with regard to the choice of means. The German form of "subjective photography" that aroused some interest in the 1950s even strove to introduce "subjectivity" into the branch of photography used for mechanical reproduction.

To an extent, the advance of photography is indebted to commercial photography which articulates the needs of consumers in forms borrowed from reality. On the other hand, without the advance of photography, the art of advertising would never have reached its present state of perfection and sophistication.

Success in forming a psychological relationship with the public determines whether the desired product image is created. However, designers must carefully avoid condescension.

"You should see audiences as sensible human beings. They don't like to receive naked messages. Most importantly, they don't want to be told this and that," said Iwenk, an art designer.

"But sensible people like to hear, to view and to read 'something'."

Some ads succeed while others fail. Generally, the failure can be attributed to the inclination to see the audience as ignorance. Blatant utterances to "use this brand!" would be perceived as patronizing.

Local ads commonly use such mediums, and some of them are even insulting to viewers. Ads for a local cooking oil product that state Gunakan akal sehat (Use your common sense) is no doubt a gross insult to public intelligence.

Iwenk does credit several local ads like Sampoerna cigarette's Bukan basi-basi (Not empty talk), Aqua mineral water and Lux soap.

"Good advertisements should inform, not tell," Iwenk added.

Women in German advertisements, as in their Indonesian counterparts, are often exploited. They are scattered across various ads, from cars to beer, and even products which have little to do with women, like tires or timber-cutting machine. With products traditionally associated with women, like stockings, perfume or lingerie, they are exploited excessively.

Advertisements, mainly through their use of commercial photography, contribute a great deal in enlivening life. "As our urbanized environment becomes increasingly standardized and dull, advertisements, placards, billboards and neon signs will assume an entirely new function, namely, that of compensating for the dearth of imagination in this synthetic universe," said German futurologist Robert Jungk. "They will inject color into the grayness of everyday life."