Spirited Conversation - Art vs. Ads
Wow, certainly a lot of spirited conversation.
First, let me state that I'm all Apple - have been since the Apple IIe days. The ad, as it stands, was nice, engaging, and clever. It wasn't the hottest thing since sliced bread, but it got people talking - well, where am I but in an Apple related forum, after all.
For those of you who haven't seen Marclay's video piece from '95, I think your reaction would be the same as mine and some others' here. It was exactly the same - although Marclay's piece was more involved, longer and more engaging, the similarity to the "Hello" portion was spot on the same - except, of course, the choice of film clips and actors. My eyes literally bugged out from recognition the first time I saw the ad.
There are, of course, several possible scenarios here: An Apple employee or one of the ad agency's people saw the Marclay piece and thought it would be cool to use part of it for an ad; or Apple asked Marclay if they could use the idea he had in an ad they were creating; or simply that the idea hit Marclay in '95 to create his piece, and, years later, the same idea hit Apple. Would permission be needed? Probably not - although I don't claim to be a lawyer. Individual ideas have cropped up in the past in different places at different times that turned out to be the same idea or concept - certainly not unheard of.
So while I toy around with words like "Rip off" and "getting sued", that was my original reaction to such a visceral image - if those of you who hadn't see Marclay's piece were to somehow get to see it, you'd be as struck as I was. Although I am curious as to the ad's creation and conception, it could very well have been a case of someone coming up with the idea independent of influence from another's work of art. But if someone at Apple or thier advertising agency DID see this piece and kept it to him/herself, then created the proposal for this type of ad, they'd be in pretty safe company due to the rather obscure knowledge of this artists' work.
Intriguing to some, meaningless to others, fun to talk about. Like a wise poster wrote somewhere above, "...it's not a ripoff, it's an homage!"
'nuff said from me!
