I think how mainstream and underground relevant has adapted to contemporary design is formed by society, we have adapted with new humors, new ideas and concepts. Both mainstream and underground relevant have developed and represent various categories in advertising. As what most today’s artists say, ‘steal is the way of art’, meaning that our idea, our concept is not original but influenced or inspired by the origins. Therefore, we artists create remakes of that topic. This is how the advertising industry or mass markets get their intention of stealing ideas to gain profit towards their advantage. Taking from a source labeled ‘The Ecstasy of Influence A Plagiarism”, Jonathan Lethem cited a quote, “All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. —John Donne” A metaphor coming from a classical concept, this practice was passed through many generations and it has yet adapted to our society. One generation passes down to another generation, as for an original concept can be drawn down to a million ideas. Though it does have its advantages and disadvantages, the advertisement industry manages to tackle this method into producing benefits and getting away with it, sometimes.
The design that I chose, ‘amazon’ represents the dichotomy of underground mainstream because the brand is influenced by main ideas in different perspectives, such as its function/ service and symbolism/ logo. As we can imagine, Amazon is well known to be an online mass market with a smile on it. There are two things to consider, how and why the smile creates a strong platform for the brand and two the concept of the smile itself. Since amazon is a world-wide marketing brand, the smile represents a friendly connection to the audience, which is considered as mainstream because the appropriation of the brand is safe for everyone, especially for children. It does not cause any disturbance or expose any danger to the views, meaning that it is safe to advertising. Another source relating to mainstream, the publisher states, “In this article I evaluate parallels between postmodernist analysis and my positions on(1) communication and (2) methodology. I also (3) propose several hypotheses that may account for why some sociologists have embraced and others tolerate the criticism and (4) discuss the implications for the discipline of the factors involved.” It evaluates specific forms that give a mainstream a chance to tolerate society or vice versa. Amazon is one of the safest examples of mainstream because it comes across various appropriations that ranges from favorable to explicit.
To be a little off topic, I want to mention something that would best describe ‘underground relevant’ and that is ‘hentai’. It’s a genre that is close related to pornography and of course influenced by it. Coming from the ideas of japan, hentai is considered to be a mass genre that created various brands dedicated to it but the problem is about advertising. I can already imagine that it creates some discomfort for certain people due to being offensive or inappropriate. Similar to the down fall of pornography, Heller states in his article, “Pornography, once the bane of puritan society, is used by the advertising industry for edgy allure. Most of the time for ‘underground relevant’ marketing, they’re limited to demands, exposure and publications. Though the concept is potential, society has their way to sabotage these brands, leading them to a disadvantage towards advertisement.
Source/ Cites:
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780822393214-025/html
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