“Adverting is not art!”
I didn’t realise I’m such an emotional one. I was about to scream, “No, it’s art.
I enjoyed my work, but there were moments when I hesitated to define myself as an artist. Due to the collaborative nature of advertising, it often requires a lot of people’s hard work and time; it’s hard to say ‘my work’, and there are times when I watch the final product, I want to say, “Who are you?
Although I may not be an artist, advertising is definitely art. The films I created were art.
I had the opportunity to contemplate my research topic by reflecting on the reasons for my upset. At work, I held the position of an “emotion” specialist. My task was to capture consumers’ attention by creating a film that triggered their emotions. This role had its positive and negative aspects. It’s hard to find words other than cowardly saying that I didn’t even have time to think about the impact that I was creating. In these situations, I had no choice but to trust my instincts.
This is the reason why I wanted to do some research here on how to make experiences that create positive messages and narratives in the media landscape with different processes. Decisions are not only made by intuitive thinking but also by logical ideas. I sensed there was something I could do. I was searching for impactful experiences that could cut through the noise in the digital media landscape of that time. It was about finding ways to use personal aspirations to foster even small changes but meaningful shifts that benefited society at large. I imagined a digital space that didn’t only captivate but also purified and motivated. That was the kind of innovation I was aiming to uncover.
Some advertisers say that advertising is not art. Should I have tried harder in this field? I now felt like I was wandering outside of my area of expertise. I disliked this sensation, so I tried for a long time to expand my territory, but I felt lost in my comfort zone.
There was a critical moment. It wasn’t spring, but I remember it like it was. I was conducting my intervention under ‘the box of uncertainty’. I aimed to provide a peaceful but retrospective moment using my “relationship ball” to let participant observe the movement of balls in the clear sphere on their hand.
One middle-aged woman showed interest in my intervention. Her eyes’ change triggered my empathy, and she slowly relayed her story. She talked about her daughter’s self-harm issues and how it has caused difficulties in their relationship.
That day, an unexpected encounter with a middle-aged woman in the street shifted the trajectory of my work, embedding it with a deeper purpose. And all it took was a shared moment, a listening ear, and a story that bridged two hearts in crowded minds.
The story was a journey through a mother’s pain, her words painting a picture of lost connections and desperate attempts to bridge an ever-widening chasm. Her daughter, once full of life, had retreated into a world where every attempt to reach her seemed to bounce off an invisible barrier. The more the woman shared, the more I realized that my project could be more than a window for looking into individuals’ inner true existence. At that moment, I felt unexplained emotions. I had to find a possible path forward, not just for her daughter but for all the other youths hidden in the shadows of their internal confusion.
In my subsequent research on youth depression and self-harm, I found that while much of the data correlated with the rise in youth depression and social media use, media use was not proven to cause adolescent depression. I was offended and felt that there was some sort of conspiracy theory going on, that someone would be ‘delusional’ to say that children were being specifically victimised in some vast world conspiracy.
Dr. Victor Fornari, the vice chair of child and adolescent psychiatry for Northwell Health, New York’s largest health system, noted that the drop in teen well-being coincided with the rise of smartphones. Although the technology’s full impact on adolescents’ mental health is still unknown, he said, there is “no question” of an association between the use of social media and the dramatic increase in suicidal behavior and depressive mood.“Kids are now vulnerable to cyberbullying and critical comments, like ‘I hate you’, ‘Nobody likes you,’” he said. “It’s like harpoons to their heart every time.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/health/teen-girls-sadness-suicide-violence.html
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/YRBS_Data-Summary-Trends_Report2023_508.pdf
Hospitalisation rates for self-harm have increased by 140% since 2010