A Flickr user from the UK who goes by the handle “StartTheDay” posted this charming photo of a Smart Car last month.  Apparently, he discovered it as he was taking a walking tour of Rome’s architecture.

I can’t pretend to know what would motivate (possess?) someone to crochet a multi-colored cozy for their compact car, but I can state without hesitation that it is an inspiring act of art.  It serves no practical purpose other than to delight and surprise anyone who encounters it.  And that qualifies it as pure art.

Some people take a limited view of advertising as solely a business, as a scientific exercise of stimulus and response.  I feel sorry for people like that.  They can never e open to those very, very rare ad messages that have been so carefully and lovingly crafted to earn attention through delight and surprise.  Sadly advertising isn’t an art all the time.  With its fundamental value lying in driving sales, it can’t be.

But every now and then, if we make enough room for it and keep our eyes open, we can find it.  And a simple ad for beer or body wash can be as magical as a sweater-wearing automobile.

Happy Friday.

l

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79

k