Product Paintings
Supermarkets. Grab an enormous rickety unbalanced hard-to-steer metal cart, and cruise through claustrophobic, towering aisles crammed with loudly colored boxes and jars shouting ecstatic promises of delectable comfort and joy. You’re overwhelmed with choices that don’t matter (57 varieties of Heinz ketchup, really? And don’t get me started on toothpaste…) The actual contents of these visually hyper-stimulating packages rarely measure up to the hype: in fact, most contain pretty much the same synthetically flavored, devitalized, glucose-spiking toxic mush.
We fall for it anyway. Our relentless search for novelty and variety. A little sweetness.
Oreo really pushed it with a festive and psychologically charged version of their iconic cookie: Birthday Cake Oreos (who doesn’t respond to birthday cake? or Oreos for that matter?) even though the actual product is merely the usual cookie with a few sprinkles embedded in the sandwich icing. Yet…the image: Blazing candles illuminate a glacially pristine vanilla cake glowing out of a celestial deep blue void… subliminally primal messaging here… inviting you to the raucous sweet celebration of your life. Just $3.29.