audience numbering in the millions, by producing inexpensive printed reproductions. Another difference is that fine art virtually never incorporates a written message whereas commercial art virtually always includes one. The illustrator produces pictures, drawings, and illustrations under supervision of an intermediary in the commercial art field.

The purposes of advertisements are: (1) to attract attention to itself; (2) to enlist the viewers interest; (3) to show the viewer a means of satisfying a want or need through purchase of the product or service. If the advertising advocates an idea, the ad is designed to create an affinity for that idea; (4) to convince the viewer to buy the product, service, or idea; (5) to show the viewer how and where to buy the product or service or to take some specific course of action. It is readily apparent that the best way to promote an advertisement is to carefully craft an art work to carry the message to the intended audience.

Advertising can be called controlled, identifiable persuasion utilizing means of mass communications. “Professor Max Wales told his classes in advertising at the University of Oregon: ‘Often advertisers choose to promote product benefits that are psychological, emotional, even silly. To explain these benefits in words proves embarrassing. Or ridiculous. So advertisers explain them indirectly—through art. The art director, then, rather than the copywriter, writes the ad.’ Wales cites the many ads showing products being enjoyed in luxurious or intriguing settings.” The purpose of advertising is to bring together all of the various elements into one area to achieve an interaction that will communicate a message within a given context. The message may be conveyed and even manipulated by carefully juggling the visual elements. These elements are essentially words, photographs, illustrations, and graphic images, combined with a controlling force of black, white, and color.

Max Beerbohm made a cynical observation in the 1930s that “we need another war—to bring out the best in our artists and to kill of the worst of them.” One of the best wartime postrists, Ashley Hovinder wrote after World War II that the war expanded the opportunities for the artist in many ways, even though the emphasis shifted away from advertising commercial products as the war progressed. The majority of official posters were modern vivid designs of almost all the combatant countries except Japan. Japanese art design in military posters was pedestrian compared to the avant-garde art displayed in Japanese posters of the late nineteenth century. Poster themes of World War I were designed to attract recruits, but the mass conscription’s in World War II shifted the themes to a patriotic basis. From the end of World War II until the early 1960s an uneasy skirmish and compromise developed between photography and graphics in the poster. The Swiss school of designers began using photography widely in posters in the 1930s. The movement toward photographic posters was intensified by the competition of television which brought images of products right into the home with convincing realism. Today, most modern posters are mass produced but still require the work of artists to convey a message.

These advertisements that we are daily exposed to in both the print medium and the electronic medium use artists to show the visual message clearly. In art, objects are represented in terms of an implied line to encourage u

Some topics in this essay:
Art Nouveau, University Oregon, , Pears Soap, War II, Andy Warhol, Mannier Manet, Theater Engraved, Sun God, Levy Ch¾ret, nineteenth century, world war, commercial art, war ii, buy product, intended audience, electronic medium, product service, world war ii, visual message, viewer buy product, visual record, buy product service, medium electronic medium, hammurabi law code,