Advertisement: Greek Statue and Perfume

Advertisement: Greek Statue and Perfume

While flipping through the pages of a fashion magazine, my fingers stop abruptly as my eyes catch an image of a nude man holding a clothed woman. The man has a muscular body and is effortlessly supporting the woman who's body is arched backwards, her arms hang in a swan-like manner. On the ground by her left foot lays a paint palette and her right hand is grasping a paint brush. The room that they are in appears to be a studio with press board floors, brick walls, and old unfinished wooden workbenches draped in cloth. The woman is painting a canvas with the image of the nude man. The foreground consists of the artist and the model, the painting and the easel, a stool, and a table with art supplies spread out on top. In the background, to the right of the canvas, stands a life-size statue of a woman facing the wall. The statue is a generic image of Greek statues from around 400 - 200 BC. In the right bottom corner of the page, a bottle of golden perfume called Tabu is superimposed on the page. The caption written in cursive reads, "Blame it on Tabu".

There are many instances in which older art works are used in contemporary situations. There is everything from cartoon characters performing in the Colosseum to government buildings modeled after the Greek Parthenon. Images from centuries ago such as those from European cave art, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome, and from medieval Europe can be seen in magazines and newspapers, television and films, architecture of buildings, etc. These images use the concepts people already have of past artworks to create a specific tone, convey messages, or sell products. The magazine ad for Tabu uses a Greek styled statue to enhance the tone of ...

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...indow streaming natural light seems to be the only source of light in the room. It falls directly on the action, the man holding the woman. Their shadows then form flawlessly across the canvas and their profiles are in perfect shape. The statue, which is behind the canvas, is in complete shadows, again signifying the conservative part of the image that hides in the shadows.

Why is this picture used to sell perfume? The action in the picture is meant to be something that we all desire. To get the perfume would mean that our wildest fantasies could come true. However, the Greek statue is needed to remind us that this in not always good. The beauty, passion, and classicism are all features of the overall image that are brought on by the clothes and lack of clothes, the idealness of the model's body, and the classic aura of the statue, all aspects of ancient Greece.