Guerilla Marketing?

I just quickly grabbed the video in my last post to give an example of Theo Jansen's work. What I didn't realise at the time - having not watched the video through to the end - was that the video was 'brought to us' by BMW.

So given that this is exactly the kind of subject that I want to write about on this blog, how should I feel about this?

Well part of me does feel that it devalues the work. It is no longer of value on it's own. It has been co-opted to serve the purposes of BMW. This does detract from my feeling about Theo Jansen and the work on display.

I'm obviously not alone in thinking this way. On the YouTube page for the video the highest rated comment (by far) is 'This looked awesome until the BMW logo popped up.'

Another representative comment of this point of view:

'this guerilla marketing thing makes me puke sometimes...

would love to see a documentary about that guy..

o wait it's not available in my country because sony banned it.. puke again..'

On the other hand, if BMW want to spend their marketing money bringing something amazing like this to people's attention then it is surely an improvement on more banal advertising?

And there is a certain fit with the product, another view represented in the comments:

'I'm not blind...lol. My view of it is that Theo was an Engineer gone artist. He is really both - and BMW is an Engineering company, and an amazing one at that - makes perfect sense to me that they are backing his artwork.

Saying a car is a kinetic sculpture isn't really splitting hairs. What BMW engineers accomplish IS art, and cars are metal sculptures - kinetic ones at that.'

I think I would feel less uncomfortable if the association were more upfront. At the end of the day, this minute or so long film just feels like a traditional advert. Everything that Theo says is taken in good spirit. He is talking about art and engineering. Noble pursuits. He has created something beautiful.

Then at the end of the film, we realise that it was all trickery. He wasn't actually talking about his creations at all, he was talking about BMW. They are the ones who we should care are marrying engineering and art.

Which in the end leaves it all feeling underhand and inauthentic. An attempt to borrow cool with little substance.

The pragmatist in me is telling me that corporations are going to play an increasingly role in the arts and we should be happy with that. But something stronger in me feels that this is perhaps looking in the right direction of what marketing needs to become but is really just more of the same.

If you're going to bring us a cool film about what somebody else is doing, then do it properly and don't co-opt the meaning fr yourself. By all means use a logo but put it at the start, like a film company would.

Or make a film about what you're actually doing.

Or genuinely collaborate and make a film about that.

But be transparent and don't try to blur the boundaries because it just ends up feeling fake.