Advertising as an art is the main idea of the large-scale project “The Night of the AdEaters,” recently held in Lviv. For seven hours Lviv residents have been watching the best samples of global advertising and discussed them. “The Night of the AdEaters” takes place in Ukraine not for the first time, however, this year the project has expanded to the nationwide scale, covering 15 cities. This show has 30 years of history and is organized in 80 countries worldwide. The Day spoke with Oleksandra KOCHUBEI about the origins and current trends in the advertising.
“First ‘The Night of the AdEaters’ was held in Paris in 1981. The founder of this project Jean Marie Boursicot loved advertising, from his childhood he was collecting video advertisements that were inserted in films and then were cut off. Boursicot saved those fragments and later, when he had a rather big collection, he decided to show it to people,” said Kochubei. “During the first ‘Night of the AdEaters’ it was very strange for people that attended it to sit all night in the cinema and watch advertising. But the next year there was a full house and Boursicot realized that it was something people liked. That is why since 1982 the Cinematheque (this is how Boursicot calls his collection of advertising) has been traveling around the world. In Ukraine this project has been going on for over 10 years now. Among 500 best commercials which were presented within the framework of the project, there were also six Ukrainian ones. Three of those appeared on TV channels, albeit in short version. During the ‘Night of the AdEaters’ we show the full versions. Other three commercials are less known – these are rather the festival projects, such as the ‘Cannes Lions.’ Thus, both commercial and social advertising are presented in the project.”
What is the purpose of this project?
“Its purpose is to show to the audience advertising not as a means for stimulating sales but as an art. Every year the initiator of the project Jean Marie Boursicot picks a few hundreds of commercials from his million collection and puts them in a certain order. That is why the ‘Night’ is divided into three thematic blocks and each of them is dedicated to a particular problem. Therefore, it is not just a mixture of random commercials, but an object of video art. Through this short videos Boursicot wants to show us how we live today, what our lives mean, what makes us laugh, is disappointing or touching for us, what we like and what we dislike.”
Would you say that there is a fashion for advertising in the world?
“There has always been fashion for good advertising. In this year’s collection of the ‘Night of the AdEaters’ there are videos that can be called short films. These are not simply a 30-second video which tries to make you buy some product. This is art.”
But there is a parallel trend – primitivism in advertising…
“This problem stems from the fact that advertisers are often afraid of new risky steps, they are afraid to show their product in an unconventional way, that’s why they buy advertisements they are familiar with. Today it is necessary to educate the new generation of marketing directors of companies, explaining to them that they should not be afraid. By the way, at the international festival of ad-producers ‘Cannes Lions’ awards are granted not only for the best advertising, but there is also a prize for the best advertiser of the year. This is the company that is not afraid to make creative decisions and implement them. Often it is these companies that are leading the market. After all, advertising is effective not when it is costly and is broadcast by many channels, but rather when its creators understand their target audience.”
What can you say about the modern Ukrainian advertising?
“So far Ukraine has not won any awards of the festival of creativity in Cannes. You could say that we haven’t reached the ‘Cannes Lions’ yet. However, the Ukrainian advertising is still very young. Maybe right now the projects are created that will soon be known not only throughout Ukraine, but also all over Europe. After all, a lot of interesting young people work in this field. We should still wait a little longer.”
