A historical example of this tactic can be seen in the below Kellogg’s ad from 1911. This print piece, for the company’s Toasted Corn Flakes Cereal includes a picture of the Venus de Milo next to a box of the product. The Classical, marble sculpture is of Venus, the goddess of love, a common female represented in Greek art. Venus stands topless with a long draped skirt, however, due to the age of the piece (now almost two thousand years old) the marble has weakened so that the arms are no longer attached to the body of the sculpture. The tagline of the advertisement reads “If Venus had arms”. The placement of this statement insinuates that were the sculpture to still retain its upper-appendages, the goddess Venus would eat Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes. This company chose to incorporate humor with fine art, in order to connect with consumers. Kellogg’s took something well-known that the general public saw as high class and juxtaposed it with a corn-based breakfast cereal.
Suggested Target Audience: Heads of Households making food purchasing decisions
Suggested Modern-Day Media Vehicle:TV Guide Magazine
Rationale: The appropriate vehicle would be one that does not include weighty articles, such as a newspaper or periodical like Time Magazine or The New Yorker. Instead, since the ad should just make you laugh, and doesn't require any art historical knowledge in order to make the content legible, the vehicle should be for the every-man when they are consuming non-serious content.
