There are so many beautiful girls who aren’t photogenic. In real life, half the models you see look really hideous.—Lisanne Falk
Two models posing for public art drawing class, Atlanta, GA (2005)
Please, take everything I say from this point forward with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor.
Being an art model is a lot more difficult than it looks. Surrounded by people you don’t know, sometimes people you wouldn’t want to know, one is asked to remove their clothing and stand, or sit, or lie, in poses specifically designed to provide an example of how the human body looks in that position, often highlighting a specific muscle group. This is how artists learn. Missing these classes leaves a huge chunk missing in one’s art education. The job is thankless. The poses are rarely comfortable and have to be held for several minutes at a time. Many times, the model doesn’t get to see, and probably doesn’t want to see the end result because, again these are art students, just learning their craft. Not all of them have a clue what they’re doing.
Most of the art models I know are wonderful people with typical, average day jobs that wouldn’t begin to give away the nature of their extra-curricular activities. Most are intelligent people who genuinely care about the arts and arts education. However, as with any profession, there are some who are just on the dangerous side of dull, even on a good day. Art instructors continue using these “dull” people because they tend to be passionate about their employment (sometimes their only employment) and have few, if any, qualms about the poses. Again, decent enough people, you just probably don’t want to try and engage them in conversation. Ever. It’s painful.
Our friends at BBDO are responsible for the current Snickers® campaign; you know, the ones about being hungry causing you to not be yourself. Those have been particularly entertaining ads over the past year, and their non-traditional outdoor ads have been especially on point. So, when we came across the new ads, shown for the first time this past Sunday, for a new product called Snickers® Crispers, I was anxious to see what the creative minds at that table had devised. At this moment, my feelings are rather mixed.
What they’ve done is slightly morph the Snickers ads where the unfortunate subject’s hunger leads them to behave in rather foolish ways. There’s certainly plenty of potential behind the concept, but of the two ads shown this past Sunday, only one was at least mildly amusing, which was the one with an art model. The second, featuring a young man blowing a job interview, was groan worthy. Parent company Mars Candies has paid for Super Bowl spots for both Snickers and Snickers Crispers and I’m really hoping they pull some new material for those overly-expensive displays.
Still, knowing art models as I do, and having met some, especially male models, who are on the far side of clueless no matter what they’ve eaten, I did find this one ad amusing and the camera work entertaining. Take a look for yourself:
What’s interesting about the ad is the premise that the model would get this far into his posing before anyone in the class said anything. Don’t you think someone might have asked a question or two when the model removed his clothes? Oh, but that would spoil the joke, so we’re just supposed to overlook that detail. The ad has some problems.
Nonetheless, it’s not every day that we find ads featuring art models so I felt rather obligated to highlight this one. Who knows, maybe someone could build a whole campaign around art models showing up in uncomfortable situations—such as lunch with your grandmother. Naked people and grandmothers sounds like a sure win to me. Go for it, BBDO!