Melting Mr. Whippy Van Creation of Ad Agency
November 25th 2006 00:05
Sculpture by the Sea is a yearly event that showcases artists work along Sydney’s Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk, this year it ran from 2-19th November.
It is a spectacular sight with a large variety of sculptures and installations provoking much debate and food for thought, this year however I was surprised to see that one of the most popular installations is indeed the brainchild of the Advertising Agency ‘The Glue Society’, the ‘artists’ Johnathon Kneebone and James Dives’ popular creation is the Melting Mr. Whippy Ice-cream Van, entitled “Hot with the chance of a late storm”, it is a statement on the perils of Global Warming.
The installation draped appropriately over the footpath at the end of the walk in Tamarama won the Sculpture by the Sea’s ‘Peoples Choice Award’, and the ‘Kid’s Choice Award’, the agency describes themselves as a ‘creative collective’ based in Surry Hills, but they are in fact a full service advertising agency set up by Gary Freedman and Johnathon Kneebone in 1998, they have won a whole heap of awards both in Australia and overseas, they have an impressive list of clients, and produce radio, print, and television advertising.
They are behind the very clever Canon ‘Digic’ TV commercial with the Lego rodeo riders, the awarded Virgin Mobile TV ads “Warren” “5 Cent” and “Jason Donovan”, and other high paying clients include Mercedes, Levi’s, BT Financial Group, Elle McPherson, News Limited, Fairfax, etc.
Most of the public wouldn’t know that an Ad Agency has entered in Sculptures by the Sea, and I think it is misleading, should full-time artists who make their bread and butter through their art be the only ones allowed to display it? Or should it be a free for all? Will the person who buys the installation be happy when they find out that it was created in an Ad Agency, by Agency employees and not a legitimate artist? Should an Advertising Agency that commands $150,000 a day to shoot a TV commercial also benefit from a free public art exhibition?
The foam and urethane construction has no buyer at present, the price tag - $22,000.
It is a spectacular sight with a large variety of sculptures and installations provoking much debate and food for thought, this year however I was surprised to see that one of the most popular installations is indeed the brainchild of the Advertising Agency ‘The Glue Society’, the ‘artists’ Johnathon Kneebone and James Dives’ popular creation is the Melting Mr. Whippy Ice-cream Van, entitled “Hot with the chance of a late storm”, it is a statement on the perils of Global Warming.
They are behind the very clever Canon ‘Digic’ TV commercial with the Lego rodeo riders, the awarded Virgin Mobile TV ads “Warren” “5 Cent” and “Jason Donovan”, and other high paying clients include Mercedes, Levi’s, BT Financial Group, Elle McPherson, News Limited, Fairfax, etc.
Most of the public wouldn’t know that an Ad Agency has entered in Sculptures by the Sea, and I think it is misleading, should full-time artists who make their bread and butter through their art be the only ones allowed to display it? Or should it be a free for all? Will the person who buys the installation be happy when they find out that it was created in an Ad Agency, by Agency employees and not a legitimate artist? Should an Advertising Agency that commands $150,000 a day to shoot a TV commercial also benefit from a free public art exhibition?
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