Art & Copy is a powerful documentary film about advertising and inspiration that directed by Doug Pray. It is about the advertising industry in the U.S. The film reveals the work and wisdom of some of the most influential advertising creations  of our time, people who've profoundly impacted our culture, yet are virtually unknown outside their industry. At the same time, the film also follows the careers of advertisers, including Hal Riney, George Lois, Mary Wells Lawrence, Dan Wieden, and Lee Clow. The documentary covers advertising campaigns such as "Just Do It", "I Love New York", "Where's the Beef?", "I Want My MTV", "Got Milk?", and "Think Different" and many other brilliant campaigns including everything from cars to presidents. They managed to grab the attention of millions and truly move them. Visually interwoven with their stories, TV satellites are launched, billboards are erected, and the social and cultural impact of their advertisements is brought to light in this dynamic exploration of art, commerce, and human emotion.

Nowadays, advertisement is the tool which many companies and enterprises use to inform prospective customers about their products and services. Tough advertisement agencies often present only the best side of product. I think that advertisement is trying to tell us about new items that may be good for our lives.  At the same time, advertisements are too common that we can see them at anytime and anywhere. So, it is quite difficult to create a good and impressive advertisement because of the high demand of clients at this moment. Many people complain about advertisements as an obnoxious way for companies to invade our everyday lives and cram their products down our throats, but that’s not all that advertisements are good for. The advertisements on this list are excellent examples of effective advertising strategies for social issue campaigns that let their voices be heard.

A well-made advertisement is designed to grab your attention and to remain in your memory long after you've left it behind, and that is exactly what many of these social causes need. Advertisements will get people to think and worry about various social and environmental issues or even simply getting them to be aware of them is important for raising public supporting and effecting meaningful changes.

Throughout the '50s, we can learn about American advertising was an old boys' club. The revolution began when the breakaway agency Doyle Dane Bernbach "put the art director in the same room as copywriter" and came up with, among other innovations, the campaign that made the Volkswagen famous in America. Besides, the late Hal Riney San Francisco gets a lot of camera time. He describes hitting it big by commissioning Paul Williams to write a tune for Crocker Bank. The song, "We've Only Just Begun," became a hit record. What did it have to do with banking? Not much, and that's the point. What's being sold is a set of values, a mood, a perspective. Furthermore, Riney suggests that his advertisement was partly compensation for various things he lacked in his own life. This is the man who came up with Ronald Reagan's "It's morning again in America" campaign. Moreover, Blustery New Yorker George Lois, a hater of the status quo, says that ads should be subversive. Lois designed many of the impressive Esquire covers of the 1960s, and he made Tommy Hilfiger a household name.

These advertising campaigns are really good because of the concepts are really creative and straightforward. “When you always did advertising, you always look for big idea. So, you did something that stomp’’, by George Lois. I am impressed by his words because of his creativity and his strength that without giving up anything even he faces a lot of problems. No doubt, the outcome of his advertisement is very successful and impressed. “Great advertising is always starting with something true”, said Lee Clow. It is so amazing how fast time flies and people still remember some parts of the advertising campaigns. People will never forget about the greatest thing in their life.

After watching this film, I found that advertising is quite an interesting field for career.  In advertising, I can have a diverse range of jobs to choose from, to suit one’s inclination, talent and personality. The choice of working in an organization that manufactures certain goods or provides certain services, to look after the advertising of these goods or services would demand a particular kind of skills and interests. I also can choose to work in an organization that creates advertising and distributes advertisements through different media. So, in such an organization, for me, I will have interested in pursuing a career in this field because there is a wide variety of jobs calling for different types of skills and creativity and give me chances to meet more people in this world.

At the same time, can you imagine our life without advertising? Modern life would totally be very different without advertising. Well, let us think about this for a moment. Life without advertising would mean: No radio, No Internet access unless you paid for it. TV would become so expensive that only the rich could watch it. You also would never know about new companies or products. You would simply be a bunch of uninformed consumers, which is bad for both the producer and us. Companies would go bankrupt because they couldn't inform people about their products, or needs. So, basically I think the end of advertisement would lead to the downfall of society because advertisements conveyed the most outspoken, comprehensive and accurate information to the world.

Jasmine