Light And Shade And Marketing Myopia.
If you go down to the Tate Modern today, this installation will greet you. All the pre-publicity described it as terrifying, but it is essentially a very large, unlit metal container into which you ascend. It's not very terrifying and it's not actually very dark. Your eyes soon adjust and easily discern the other people therein.
A couple of years ago, I walked into Anthony Gormley's steam cloud cube at the Hayward Gallery and was completely disoriented. I couldn't see beyond a couple of inches in front of me and people were consistently bumping into each other. It was an eye-opening experience.
Photograph taken by Stephen White
It turns out that black isn't necessarily dark and that white can be. Marketers should be very pleased about that. Too often, they're not.
Addendum: And sometimes, like art critics, they even get indignant if their users don't react as expected or, worse still, told.
posted by john dodds @ 2:57 AM
2 Comments:
You know, if I ever have to pick a team to accompany me into the deep, dark lair of the killer dragon/alien/unnameable fiend, your name will be first on the list.
"Actually, it's not all that dark. And that creature's not nearly as big as they said it was. OK, it's breathing a little bit of fire but..."
You're not frightened of big metal containers because that's where you keep your women.
Allegedly.
And it is frightening how much we accept as 'fact' simply because we are too lazy to explore the possibilities. Marketing folk should find that fascinating - but you're right - too few do.
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