While advertising’s main skill set seems to be “Bullshitting Others,” coming in a close second would be the smarmy pride exuded in co-opting other people’s ideas. The rise of an agency creative relies 95% on their ability to combine being a prolific bullshit artist and a proud phoney. Look around -- there’s nothing else to advertising. Other than buying people drinks/dinner/coke and getting into events.

Nowhere is this better evident, than in the mountain of people that take credit for print campaigns based solely on run and gun location shoots, done by a single photographer. Especially when the campaigns are capitalizing on the photographer’s personal aesthetic, which gained them notoriety.

Case in point is Ryan McGinley, the youngest person to show at The Whitney and best thing to precipitate out of the whole Vice era. He shot two print campaigns in 2009, for competing jeans brands. However the look of the Gran Prix winning Wrangler ads are cold and menacing, compared to the sun-drenched open spaces of his Levi’s “Go Forth” print ads.

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Studious types will recognize the Levi’s campaign as an extension of  McGinley’s “I Know Where The Summer Goes” series (link), wherein uninhibited and youthful types run through the wild western states. The images were such a resounding cultural force, that the entire Levi’s “Go Forth” campaign was built on the McGinley aesthetic canon of campfires, sparklers, trampolines, and sinewy youth emerging from the woods at night. (See above TV spot).

After the Summer series, McGinley’s work took a departure and became more fixated on monochromatic colors, atmospheric fog and blown out highlights. He followed up with a new series of images in 2009 called “Moonmilk,” that featured kids crawling on their bellies through caves and used of a heavy amount of color filtration. A complete departure from his earlier, almost vintage naturalistic style -- yet still visibly bearing the McGinley hallmark. So fittingly, the new 2010 Wrangler campaign by the same agency (Fred & Farid) updated to the 2010 Ryan McGinley look.

But these images weren’t shot by McGinley.  He’s not credited anywhere in the campaign credits and yet they bear his look. Granted, there is a whole agency behind these campaigns… You can see Fred Raillard above, crediting an army of agency people for the earlier 2009 Wrangler campaign winning the top award at Cannes. Despite it being one photographer running around NJ for two days -- having total freedom. So in essence, this new Wrangler print run must be like the TV spots of the Levi’s Go Forth campaign, in that it’s OK to borrow someone else work… But aren’t intellectual property issues involved, when someone is no longer associated with an agency campaign?

Just by looking over the prints from the Moonmilk exhibition in London, it’s pretty clear that the new Wrangler ads owe a debt. However, the great news is that in the space of a few months, there is a new evolution in the McGinley aesthetic at work. This time unveiled in a spot he shot for Pringle of Scotland, featuring Tilda Swinton. It combines the above two styles, mashing up pastoral lyricism with dank cave interiors. Creating a wonderful contrast that keeps the whole thing from getting stale or repetitive. And it’s great…. Only now, we’re wondering if this is co-opted by other brands/agencies/creatives, would that really be such a bad thing? We could always use more of this.

Can’t wait to see how the awards turns out this summer in Cannes, with CEOs taking all the credit again… Hopefully for people they actually employed.

Tags: Campaign, Fred & Farid, Levi's, Ryan McGinley, Vice Magazine, Wrangler
Posted in: General