Billy Mack - Christmas Is All Around

Why I'm Quitting Tobacco

A Transcript of Don Draper's ad in the New York Times

Mad Men Season 4 Episode 12

Recently my advertising agency ended a long relationship with Lucky Strike cigarettes, and I’m relieved.

For over 25 years we devoted ourselves to peddling a product for which good work is irrelevant, because people can’t stop themselves from buying it. A product that never improves, that causes illness, and makes people unhappy. But there was money in it. A lot of money. In fact, our entire business depended on it. We knew it wasn’t good for us, but we couldn’t stop.

And then, when Lucky Strike moved their business elsewhere, I realized, here was my chance to be someone who could sleep at night, because I know what I’m selling doesn’t kill my customers.

So as of today, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce will no longer take tobacco accounts. We know it’s going to be hard. If you’re interested in cigarette work, here’s a list of agencies that do it well: BBDO, Leo Burnett, McCann Erickson, Cutler Gleason & Chaough, and Benton & Bowles.

As for us, we welcome all other business because we’re certain that our best work is still ahead of us.

Sincerely,

Donald F. Draper

Creative Director

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

V Magazine #66 - History of Sexy Bodies

WAR IS OVER! IF YOU WANT IT (1969 - 2009)

The WAR IS OVER! campaign was originally launched by John and Yoko on 15th December, 1969. Billboards with the inscription "WAR IS OVER! (IF YOU WANT IT) Happy Christmas from John and Yoko" were placed in 11 cities worldwide: New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Rome, Athens, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Along with these billboards leaflets were distributed, posters plastered up, newspaper advertisements placed and radio announcements made.

When John was asked how much the billboards cost, he replied "I don't know- but it is cheaper than someone's life."

"Henry Ford knew how to sell cars by advertising. I'm selling PEACE. And Yoko and I are just one big advertising campaign. It may make people laugh, but it may make them think, too. Really, we're Mr and Mrs Peace."

Pop Culture's Child

The Jakarta Post Weekender, November 2009

Although award-winning art director and photographer Ali Akbar has built a successful career in the advertising industry, he has shown a willingness to bite the hand the feeds him. He shares his unique view of the world with M. Taufiqurrahman.

In February this year, a glossy billboard in South Jakarta announced that a new fashion house was offering an 80 percent discount at its "opening sale".

The billboard featured a polished shot of a model wearing a stylish dress and shoes and carrying a handbag, with the brand name splashed across the lot. Those wanting to know more could visit the brand's Facebook page or company website.

Dozens of people made online queries, some made proposals for business partnerships and others logged on to check out the products.

Until Facebook took down the page, that is.

Perhaps The brand name-"Fakery"-should have clued them in that no such company existed and that they had been part of perhaps the biggest ever hoodwinking of Jakarta's overzealous shoppers.

Behind the joke was Ali Akbar, an award-winning art director and photographer who has built a career in the advertising industry yet still tries to live by his conscience.

"I just wanted to remind people how stupid people are when it comes to foreign brands," Akbar says. "I meant this to be satire really."

The stunt could have landed Akbar in legal trouble but he got away with it because it was part of the art festival Jakarta Biennale 2009, an event fully endorsed by the Jakarta City administration.

Although Akbar is part of the advertising industry and counts advertising bigwigs among his clients-helping them sell cigarettes, sweets, undergarments and banking services-he can also step back to take a critical look at what goes on.

"I have to admit that the industry itself shares the blame for all the excess," he says."

Still, it's not an outright condemnation. "The advertising industry is an inseparable part of pop culture. In fact, we can trace the cultural development though advertising. In ads we can see the confluence of music, movies and literature."

And if a basic requirement for working in the advertising industry in fluency in pop culture, the 35-year-old was well prepared.

Raised on a steady diet of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Doors and the Sex Pistols from his father's music collection, Akbar enrolled in the Graphic Design Department at the Jakarta Institute of Arts (IKJ) simply to indulge his obsessive passion for the legendary bands' cover art.

It was apparent that gazing far too long at covers of the Beatles' Sgt. Peppers's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers or the Sex Pistols' Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols seriously affected him.

In the early 1990s, when his peers were drawn to the Seattle Sound, to the music of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Sound garden, Akbar was more interested in the record sleeves that Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam, designed for the band's classic album Vitalogy, Yield and No Code.

His long hours of watching Hollywood films and poring over comic books also left a lasting impression.

"If you pay close attention to my work, you will see James Bond posters here and the Lucky Luke character there," Akbar says, referring to the fictional British spy and a comic book character created by French-Belgian writer Rene Goscinny.

A graphic design focus may not have landed Akbar a job as a sleeve designer for big rock bands, but it did give him the credentials to work with some big names in advertising, even without having to complete his studies at the IKJ.

"Going to school for five years and finishing on time was not the definition of success for me," Akbar says of why he dropped out of art school.

Akbar soon made a name for himself in the business of image-making and consumer persuasion. His take on the "I'm lovin' it" campaign for fast-food giant McDonald's in Indonesia was selected as the best in the region in 2003. During his time with advertising agency Leo Burnett Kreasindo, Akbar designed a campaign for telecom company Telkomsel that won him an award at the Citra Pariwara ad industry honors and showcase at a trade event in London.

After the success of the McDonald's campaign, Akbar saw an opportunity to use advertising as a way to promote religious pluralism. Raise as a Muslim, Akbar was upset by attacks on nightclubs in Kemang, South Jakarta, by members of a hard-line religious group.

In a pitch to a client, he used a picture of a local woman wearing a jilbab (headscraf). In Jakarta today, that alone would not raise any eyebrows. But his tagline-"I'm a Muslim and open minded"-might save. The client rejected the ad.

It was similar to a message Akbar had delivered before in his work for "Right Wing Violence", an art exhibition organized by the Goethe Institute in 2003. In a work designed to shock, Ali slapped the words pengacau (troublemaker) and perusak (vandal) on photos of two five-years-olds in white Islamic outfits.

It was sufficiently provocative to anger some Muslim activists. "But they finally got the message that everyone must make an effort not to taint the got image of Islam and being a Muslim," he says.

Akbar is sceptical toward organized religions in general, something that he once again attributes to rock and roll. "It might have been something that I read in books, but John Lennon's words in imagine inspired me more," he says.

But rock and roll was involved in Akbar's discovery of a love for photography, which came much earlier.

Akbar started experimenting with photography when he was in elementary school. He took photographs, pasted them onto scraps of paper, photocopied them and tried to sell them as newspapers.

No one bought the newspapers, but more than three decades later one of Akbar's photographs not only appeared in a real publications, the prestigious American Photo magazine, but also garnered an honourable mention in magazine's special "Images of the Year" issued, published in January 2009.

Not mean feat for someone who had only seriously taken up photography four years earlier.

For the photo, Akbar took a shot of a dour-looking couple in their living room-or possibly bedroom-dressed only in their undergarments, surrounded by all the mementos they had accumulated throughout their lives. (the man in the photo is artist Irwan Ahmett).

Toys, books, stuffed animals, clocks, clothes and other objects were strewn across the floor and piled up behind the couple as if forming a fortress for their solitude, despite the vibrant colours Akbar used.

"For this shot, I was inspired by Rothko. He was capable of conveying emptiness and vacuity with bold colours," Akbar says, referring to Mark Rothko, an American abstract painter known for splashing bold colours onto the canvas and for using numbers and colours as the titles of his works.

Another influence Akbar cited is the Israeli-bred, London-based photographer Nadav Kander, who achieved with photography what Rothko did with painting-despite his use of brilliant colours, the only emotion he conveyed was emptiness.

"Figures like Henry Cartier-Bresson or Diane Arbus were the ones who captured the moment, akin to photojournalism. On the other hand, what an art photographer does is put models into the studio and take photos of them," Akbar says.

But Kander, Akbar says, transcends the boundary between them. "His photography is not about technical issues, lighting, directing and all that. It is not about capturing the moment but instead it's an attempt to create a moment."

The greatest lesson Akbar learned from Kander, he says, is that photography is art and that technology counts very little in the making of that art. "I may be able to replicate a certain photographer's technique in lighting but copying a directing style will be impossible as it involves experience in real life," he says.

In fact, he believes technology has turned photography into a degenerate art.

"Photography used to be good, but digital technology killed what's left a good ol' photography."

The Raconteurs - Steady, As She Goes

Find yourself a girl, and settle down

Live a simple life in a quiet town 

Your friends have shown a kink in the single life

You've had too much to think, now you need a wife

A Young Photographer with International Achievements

INDONESIAN PHOTOGRAPHER, 10th edition, April 2009
(English Translation)

Time continues to renew itself. That is how the law of nature works the young replaces the older ones, the living succeeded the dying. 

So no wonder the regenerative principle also applied to the world of photography. Currently the young talents of photographers continue to grow and are preparing to succeed their senior's place. The concrete example could be found in Ali Akbar's persona. He represents the successive regeneration principle. They are the representations of the creative and first-rate young photographers who are ready to step ahead. 

At firs photography was not really the activity, which connects Ali Akbar with advertising industry. "Before I was an art director and have worked in the advertising circle for 6 years," he stated. During his tenure as art director, Ali has received various awards ranging from Citra Pariwara, Adoi Advertising Awards and London International Advertising Awards. The long years of art directing have brought Ali to a deep longing for different atmosphere. Thus in the year 2005 Ali decide to quit his job and moved to Singapore to work as a photographer and creative freelancer. After one year adventuring abroad, Ali came up with the decision to return to Indonesia and founded his own studio, "Between the year of 2007 and 2008 I set up Ali Akbar studio and focused myself in making commercial photography" said Ali.

His focus on commercial photography is motivated by his background experience, "Since the start, I have fallen for advertising, the knowledge and experience in commercial industry that I have makes it even more a realistic choice for me," Ali explained. Nonetheless, Ali also admitted that the career shift from art director to photographer involves some new challenges. "Whereas in the past I was more in charge in the concept development, now I have to push this concept even further towards an executable level in terms of photography," he said. The challenges also grow as a commercial photographer must take in different elements to measure one's level of success. " We have to satisfy different interest, not only the client's but also our target audience's. If the ads does nor received expected responds, then our work is deemed as a failure" Ali explained.

Another thing that motivates Ali to focus on commercial projects is the network that he has maintained throughout his career. Thus he does not require a lengthy adaptation. "Because I already have enough links and long-time relations, I don't have any difficulties in looking for clients, I just have to run the maintenance," said the photographer whose work was awarded by Citra Pariwara. Much less with his experience abroad such as in Malaysia and Singapore, automatically some of his clients are not exclusively Indonesian.

Despite of his background in the ads agency, in fact Ali recently Honourable Mention from American Photo magazine for editorial category instead of printed ads photography. The work visualized graphic designers duo, Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina with objects that inspired them. "So the approach is closer to portrait," Ali said shortly. In respond to the award give away, Ali saw it as a benchmark. "This way we can measure our own position. The interesting thing is to learn how others judge our personal style" said the photographer whose work was displayed at the National Gallery and in a billboard located at Pondok Indah area, during Jakarta Biennale XIII.

Fail Harder

Billboard Art Adds Reflection to the City's Celestial Clutter

THE JAKARTA POST, 9 February 2009

Taking advantage of a rare opportunity, artists are transforming Jakarta billboards from their traditional function as commercial advertisements to art that provokes viewers to think twice about their surroundings.

Instead of being bombarded by messages pushing them to spend money, people passing the now-historic first modern mall in Indonesia -Sarinah Department Store on Jl. MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta - can see a billboard sporting an old photograph of a woman wearing the traditional kebaya and sarong and holding an umbrella. Artist Angki Purbandono used the anonymous portrait as an imagined image of former first president Sukarno's nanny, the inspiration behind the department store's name. Commuters stuck in traffic along often-gridlocked Jl. Sultan Iskandar Muda can consider the meaning of another portrait of an elusive woman. Yan Mursid's stereogram is erected on a billboard at the pedestrian bridge in front of the Pondok Indah mosque.

The billboard art is part of the ongoing art festival ARENA: Jakarta Biennale 2009, Billboard project curator Irwan Ahmett said the idea was to bring art to public spaces.

"This is something new and has never been done before."

"The billboard phenomenon in Jakarta has reached an extraordinary level, especially with the election campaigns. They're everywhere and placed with no regard for the city's aesthetics. It's cluttered," Irwan said.

Billboard advertising can be seen in every corner of the capital. With the coming election, political parties and candidates have splashed billboards, banners, and posters on every roadway.

"We're manipulating this phenomenon by using the same medium to showcase site-specific art," Irwan said.

One artist, Ali Akbar, chose to work up a parody of commercial billboards to mock Jakartans' consumerism. His billboard, also in front of the Pondok Indah Mosque, informs people of an 80 percent discount at the opening of a fake fashion house dubbed Fakery London.

Ali carries the con one step further, using a fake Facebook account for the label. "The funny thing is, people on Facebook have been all eager about finding out about this label," he said.

Ali, an award-winning photographer, said that he was taking a critical look at deep consumerism in Jakarta. At first he wanted to put the mock billboard up on Jl. Asia Afrika, Senayan, South Jakarta, where the two malls Plaza Senayan and Senayan City face each other.

"We weren't able to secure a permit there," he said.

Four billboards went up Monday. Irwan said Cecil Mariani's billboard about the history behind Menteng Park was scheduled to go up soon in Menteng, Central Jakarta. Eric Wijaya's billboard will be up in mid February, replacing Angki's. Ritchie Ned Hansel's likewise goes up at the same time in Pondok Indah.

Some artists participating in the project said their inspiration came from the exact location where they knew their art would be displayed.

Angki, originally from Yogyakarta and residing there now, said the Sarinah locale pretty much summed up the Jakarta experience. He worked in the Sarinah building for two years for MTV Trax magazine. "It's like, after visiting Sarinah, you don't have to go anywhere else in Jakarta."

"You can find everything there: sidewalk vendors, department stores, restaurants and nightclubs," he said.

Angki has been collecting old photographs since 2006. The photograph he used is part of that collection. "I imagined Sarinah would have been a refined and elegant woman," he said.

Another artist, Ismiaji Cahyono, placed his billboard in Grogol, East Jakarta. Despite the hectic cluttered there, Aji said he liked the site for its strategic location.

Using his billboard he invited people to express their feelings about Grogol through sending a text message over their mobile phones.

His billboard has "Grogol: .." in big letters.

By Tuesday Aji had already received 24 messages. He said most replies contained the same word: cluttered.

~ Prodita Sabarini

Arts for Laypersons

TEMPO 52/XXXVII, 16 February 2009
(English Translation)

That noon, the sun simmered Jakarta. But Wawang remained animated in offering his services to the visitors of Monas. He is one of dozens of mobile photographers around Monas. Wawan's spirit was boosted due to an exhibition holding located at the tunnel nearby the ticket booth." Since the exhibition is held, our income rise to almost 20 percent higher", he said in excitement.

The photo exhibition Wawang was referring to displayed works of the young photographer Daniel Kampua. The exhibition entitled Monas dan Kita (literally Monas and Us) presented various unique poses of visitors as shot by the mobile photographers. These photo works can give the impression that the visitors are touching the monument's top. There is a photo depicting a boy reaching the gold surface at the top of Monas, to a photo portraying a guy in long hair that pretend to lit his cigarette from the flame-shape summit. Apparently these unique poses have driven other visitors to have similar shots taken.

But Wawang's joy is not only caused by the increasing demand. "What I like most is the text set next to the photo. For us, this text has given us the acknowledgement to mobile photographer profession," he proudly explained. Indeed, this exhibition was dedicated for them. Apart from presenting the unique poses, Daniel has succeeded in assembling all the photographers working in the area in a photo group session. A very rare moment to be found there, as in daily circumstances the relation between the mobile photographers at Monas is highly competitive.

Daniel's work is one of the site-specific work series presented as part of Jakarta Biennale XIII 2009 holding in January. Ardi Yunanto, the program's curator, stated that this time they invited artist to discuss about the diminishing public space in Jakarta. "We also asked them to create new spaces, both in its physical as well as conceptual sense," Ardi added.

Thus, arts will lo longer appears sterile within prestigious avenues. One artist, Veronica Kusuma, brought free film screening to an old cinema house in Senen. In the past Senen was a strategic area. It was also a popular hub for among local artists such as Wim Umboh and Misbach Jusa Biran. While the Senen cinema house heyday could be traced back to the 1970-1980 period, during the golden era of Indonesian cinema.

The cinema house then started to dwindle following the plunge experienced by Indonesian movie industry in the 1990's. With the current revival of the giant screen, the cinema house remains stranded into the past. "Many come here not only to watch the film, but also to hold sexual transaction," explained the student of Film studies at Jakarta Arts Institute.

To revive its function as an entertainment place, Vero and her colleagues organized two free film screenings last January: a comedy flick starred by Benyamin S. and a horror movie featuring the horror queen Suzanna. The audience responds were beyond expectation, from the 180 seats capacity available, 210 people came watching.

The shows were attended by people from different background, from street-hawkers, local thugs, to sex workers. "They were all excited about these events," Vero said gleefully. Although the space was without air-condition and the audience have to seat in chairs that resemble public transportation seating, their enthusiasm remains high. Despite of the breaking projection due to the reel's bad quality, the audience remain lingered in their seat until the show ended.

Public spaces were created throughout the Biennale. Saleh Husein, Yusmario Farabi, and Aprilia Apsari invented a new park, which is unlisted in the municipal office. The trio designed and "installed" a park underneath the flyover located nearby Tebet train station. The site was named Taman Catur, (literally, Chess Park) since people always play chess there everyday for the past five years. Owing to the local residence, the place that was originally dark and dangerous became a fun meeting point.

Saleh and his friends tried to emphasize the presence of the informal chess park. They learned that there were no bench or table upon which the residence can play chess with. After spending one month to brainstorm with the local citizens they came up with the idea to make seating arrangements for playing chess, accompanied by a mural depicting the chess pawns over the flyover walls.

The bench and tables were designed for 16 people with the chessboard painted on the table surface. Some spaces are provided in between the "boards" for the players to put their coffee-mugs on. The bench was made extra-long so the audience could sit while watching the game. But the most unique thing is the detachable table leg. "This was tailored based on the people's demand, so that when there is police raid, they can be moved," said Saleh in laughs.

Concerns over the increasing numbers of mall in Jakarta have sparked a creative inkling in Ali Akbar's mind. The former worker of advertising industry observes the excessive consumerism among Jakarta citizen. He then set up billboard advertising a fake sale under the brand Fakery. Not contented with the billboard perched on the bridge crossing nearby Pondok Indah Mosque, he also distributed the fake sale promotion in the social networking site, Facebook.

Within two weeks time, he collected more than 200 new friends due to the ads. Almost everyone positively welcome the fake brand launching. Some have asked the outlet location for this brand, while a public relation company proposed a partnership package. The initial plan was to set the billboard in front of the two prestigious shopping malls in Senayan area. Unfortunately, the complex bureaucracy of Jakarta governance hampered this attempt. "Actually I wanted to show people how they have been buying unnecessary things, based on fake reality," he explained.

The high crime rate in Jakarta has disturbed artists as well. Ami and The Popo are two young people who often pass through T.B. Simatupang street in South Jakarta area. They have witnessed a motorbike robbery during one night at the location. Hence they mulled over the possibilities of making a warning system.

At the three locations with highest risk, they put up a wetpaste poster depicting a motorbike rider being chased by a gun or a giant hand. Too bad, due to the sites' high exposure to water, their posters are already torn by now. The idea to provide a warning system is entitled Caterpaper. They often spotted a robber who intentionally scattered nails on certain streets in Jakarta to ensnare their victim. To warn the citizens about the criminal conduct Ami and the Popo disguised as a public work official installed some warning on the streets saying: Warning Nails.

In responding to the heavy traffic, Ismiaji Cahyono designed a giant yellow billboard at Grogol intersection. The wordings on the billboard say: Grogol is...? Pleas fill the blank and send your text message to 0899123456, which is his private phone number. He collected the meanings of Grogol for its citizens via the short message sent to his mobile phone.

So many problems are beleaguering this city that it took three weeks for artists to discuss the. Some of the results directly benefit the public.

~ Sita Planasari Aquadini