Mr. Grey

I believe that all advertising is lying. Not part, not some, not most, but all advertising is lying. I wish more people in the graphic design and advertising field would admit it more often. I think there should be support groups in which we could put our names on peel-and-stick name tags and have a group hug each week to help each other in our chosen profession.

I have recently seen the Doug Pray documentary "Art & Copy" in which Rich Silverstein comments on the "Got Milk?" campaign by saying it was based on a truth. The previous campaign for milk was "Milk. It does a body good." Showing off lean and trim bodies exercising and running across beaches. Milk, however, is not the best thing to drink before a workout. But was the "Got Milk?" campaign anymore truthful? The tag line seems innocuous enough, but the scenarios built in each commercial grow more and more implausible to a point where you have to overlook the truth to get the punch line. It is a harmless lie overall. It is the type of lie which makes jokes interesting, caped men fly, and makes it possible to tell tales of galaxy far, far away.

"Art &Copy" also highlights the work of the late Hal Riney who created some of the most memorable and emotional campaigns for brands such as Bartles and Jaymes and Perrier. He also used his technique of a soft-voiced narrator and bucolic images for the 1984 re-election commercial for Ronald Reagan. Riney's "Morning in America" commercial was the first time I saw the same type of technique seen in retail advertising used for a political commercial. It convinced me, as a non-voting teenager, that Reagan was the president for me. I was incredibly impressed of Reagan's media savvy and how he understood the new, modern America. I look back at this and see how I was easily impressed by a shiny object from 1984 created from a San Francisco advertising agency.

I have also recently seen the Wendy Keys documentary "Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight". In it, Glaser states that end goal of advertising is to lie. He is very wary of how advertising has been used over the years to represent politicians and issues. "Every culture has its own way of indoctrinating its citizenry. In our culture, this indoctrination occurs through the use of advertising, television, schooling and the way news is reported." says Glaser in a keynote address on February 2008 at the School of Visual Arts. "By using fear and endless repetition, the government has subverted our mythology and character and it has processed the American people into accepting a dramatic erosion of our civil rights and, perhaps most appallingly, to approve of torture."

I admit it. I lie for a living. I have made food look better, improved the fit of women's sportswear, emphasized the efficacy of certain pharmaceutical medications, retouched photos of skinny models to make them look even skinnier, and created a "family crest" for a nice Jewish boy from Connecticut. These lies, however, range from a white ones to ones that are a bit more sinister and shameful. There is a great deal of gray area when working in advertising. It is infinite, analog, and bigger than the two extremes. The claim that advertising is lying for a living is nothing new. But it is still a topic of discussion when you see the latest Photoshop disaster from latest Ralph Lauren advertisement. It would not be so objectionable if advertising team would just admit what they do is a manipulate perception. It would inform people of the advertising industry's motivations and we would have a laugh or two with the next Photoshop disaster instead of criticizing the industry's lack of ethics. What would be the next step if advertising knew that their audience were savvy to their methods? Would it lead to better methods of communicating to a target market? Would it make consumers more savvy and less prone to advertising claims? Would we laugh a bit more?

I get a kick when a new client calls me up and asks to speak with Mr. Grey. To set the record straight, I am not Mr. Grey. I work for Mr. Grey. He represents the mysterious boss nobody ever sees and is always in a meeting or out of the office. He is the Remington Steele of my business, or for the people who watched too much 3, 2, 1 Contact, the Mr. Bloodhound of the Bloodhound gang.

I had the idea of Mr. Grey years ago when I was at my friend's studio. He has a huge picture archive of head shots. Within the file was a picture of William Goldman, the designer of the CBS eye logo. A calm, cool, figure in a dark suit occasionally smoking a cigarette. I was intrigued of how a creative person looked more like a business man and less like an "artist". He became the icon that I based my corporate identity on.

Something dawned on me and I asked myself the question: "Were designers of that time more professional, or are graphic designers taken less seriously today and are seen as just art school graduates?"

I think the answer is somewhere in between. I have seen graphic designers been part timers and have pursued other careers on the side such as DJ, fashionista, or internet celebrity. Their creative process at times does not consider other business, marketing, or financial variables. I have also seen the craigslist ads for so-called "interns" that need to have their own computer, software, and printer in order to work... for free. Apparently there are agencies out there that don't believe they should pay for labor, let alone ideas. Something that the industry prides itself on is the creation of original thought. If agencies start to adopt the idea that ideas are free, why should their clients think they should pay for anything.

I expect graphic designers to take the craft seriously and understand they are part of a larger system that has other priorities to balance. In turn, I hope clients and agencies will value them and reward them accordingly.