Advertising as Art

Advertising as Art explores a collection of ‘Golden Age’ illustrators’ methods of advertising for a variety of clients during the first half of the 20th Century. Each ad presented a challenge to the illustrator as to how to best present that particular commodity to the public. While some ads highlight the inherent qualities and benefits of using the product, others found that placing it into a grander setting was more effective and attracted greater attention. This idea of branding a product to an audience is widely used in most present day advertising, but was first born from these Golden Age illustrators’ artworks. 

One featured artist is J.C. Leyendecker, renowned for creating Arrow Collar advertisements featuring his notorious Arrow Collar Man, for which his partner, Charles Beach, modeled. One of the first national uses of branding, Leyendecker believed that the greatest impact was to creating easily reproduced, immediately recognized, and broadly distributed images for large audiences to appreciate: “Not simply a man, but a manly man, a handsome man… an ideal American man: The Arrow Collar Man.”