Ad Art Grows in $$ Value
Above: Paul Colin's 1925 image for Revue Negre, the Paris show that launched Josephine Baker's European career: $322,000.
We checked in with Jack Rennert, president of Poster Auctions International in order to find out the results of the advertising poster auction earlier this month.
Bids came in from the full-house at the International Poster Center, as well as by telephone and online, all throughout the world. It set a world record of $2.5 million in sales for the 800 posters offered in 578 lots.
It makes us wonder if Cadillac's Led Zeppelin TV spots will someday command Robert Plant/Jimmy Page level-residuals, or whether the value of Weiden's numerous Nike ads will beat out Tiger Wood's annual income?
How about classic ad posters depicting films about advertising, such as The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, or Putney Swope, or the ultimate classic, The Hucksters starring Clarke Gable? We think they are certainly worth their ticket price.
Will this give pause to spur brand managers into thinking about the long term brand equity of the advertising they create? What will their legacy be? Will seeing these objet d'arts make them think only about how their campaigns promote their brands over the "straight six" holiday sales week scramble we're in now?
Or will they consider the ROI their 2007 campaign has six decades from now; when their grandchildren's grandchildren are bidding up the cost of last Sunday's Valassis insert that walls the Smithsonian FSI MadAve wing?
Ahhh, we think we know the answer. Thankfully not everyone thinks so short term. Here are several we toast as some of the most sought-after ad-posters in the world circa, 2007. We congratulate the legacy of their art directors and copywriters (and buyers of these ad works) who clearly had their view on a much longer buying cycle!
A. M. Cassandre's classic 1932 tryptich for Dubonnet: $230,000
Ivan Lendl's collection of tennis posters sold, including Cassandre's spectacular 1925 image for the Lawn Tennis International. Grande Quinzaine: $55,200
The 1919 Swiss poster by Charles Loupot for Zurich silk merchant Grieder sold well above the estimate: $50,600.
Palace Hotel: $25,300
Exactitude: $25,300
A 1928 poster by Otto Morach for the famous Swiss clothier PKZ, which stands for Paul Kehl of Zurich. The text, in German, makes a call to men to dress. PKZ: $4,600
Don Draper, Keep your shirt on. Your MAD ad $$ will come soon enough. - The Editors!
