re:form — Medium : They dance on street corners and used car lots, waving their stubby arms in the wind. Tirelessly they shimmy, collapse, and bob up again, stupid grin permanently glued to their stupid faces. They are wacky inflatable tube guys, a ubiquitous advertising product that manages to be mesmerizing, hilarious, and existentially bleak, depending on your mood.
10 comments:
Interesting, these days I mostly see those at used car dealerships with big letters that say "Sale". I guess a lot of stuff we don't think about started as art. The author said he did not know how it went from two legs to one, but there are a number of viable possibilities. My first guess, if the creator got a patent on two legged ones, it makes sense that everyone would shift to one just to avoid the fee. And also as likely, One fan is cheaper than two, especially if you are going to making them in bulk.
This is a fascinating article. I have often wondered how such a silly looking thing became so common in marketing. These items are also ridiculously expensive, I have seen them on sale in magazines for thousands of dollars. But, clearly, the price is worth it to many companies. I would be interested to know how much extra business these figures actually attract. Sure, they look cool and get attention, but how many people actually come to your business because of them? An interesting project may be to look at a chain, some of which have these figures and some which don't, and explore the patterns of which individual stores get more business (or don't) over a given period of time.
It just goes to show that even the wackiest ideas can gain some popularity. While I don't know how effective these tube men are for attracting customers, (although they are eye catching) they're clearly marketable to business owners.
Anything is marketable if you find your niche. I think it's important to entertain any idea or possible creation. You never know what may be popular tomorrow.
First of all I think it is funny that these are seen (at least in my eyes) as a very “American” design and usage, but was designed by an Israeli artist through an artistic and engineering journey. When I see these inflatable men I think of their purpose as really just to attract peoples’ eye and get in their face; as if they are saying, “look at me and look at this store and look at me!” This is in part why I thought it looked weird to have these large inflatable men in the Olympics (even the picture in the article looked very out of place). It is a shame that these pieces of art are honestly pretty trashy no a days because they are used so often and are so amerced in the commercial world. I would love to know the artist’s opinion about how people view his designs now, or if that is all null and void because of all the money he must be making.
This was so funny! I loved the introductory paragraph especially. The diagrams are funny, too. I never really considered the origin of these "tube guys". They are so tacky and yet so amusing to watch. I'd agree with Simone that it's surprising and interesting that this sort of thing was originally designed by an Israeli artist. I never thought of these "tube guys" as being artistic or even anything other than a cheep marketing technique to grab people's attention, but it's cool to see that sometimes, things that are commercial started out at art.
I'll admit while this is pretty interesting its kinda pointless information. I'm all for the tube guys and the inventor ingenuity but the presentation of this article as though its some dateline television show is a bit annoying. The entire time I was focused on how pointless it was and sort of missed the real meat of the article. I was also very upset that it glazed over the BLATANT copyright issues here. The original creator is barely credited in any of the adaption and re sales. That's so infuriating!
Who would have thought that those simple inflatable dancing guys were that difficult to create and develop. They have gone through a few different designs like most products. They seem very goofy, but they can be helpful in attracting business. It is very entertaining to watch the inflatable guys dance. They look very funny and are always doing different moves. They are mesmerizing to look at. It seems like a stupid idea, but it has become very popular. Since they are expensive, companies make a lot of money off of them.
"Oh my god, I hate these things." - Me, every time I see one of these.
But actually, this article really made me reconsider the way I view the world. I see these regularly, but give no thought to their design and development. I think this "looking without seeing" phenomenon is a product of both the ubiquitousness of these guys (especially at car dealerships), and my lack of observation. Five minutes ago, I could not care less about these tube guys. I still probably really take note when I see these around, but I have an appreciation now for the original thought and design that went into these.
As a connoisseur of strange, esoteric information I really loved this article. I am always reminded of the Family Guy advertisements for "Wacky Waving Inflatable Tube Guys" when I see them in the wild, but I never gave much thought as to how they came into existence. I agree with Kassondra that I'd like to see how much revenue boost they actually provide to a company, because when I see them my first instinct is almost never "Oh! I need to shop here now!" but maybe some people are really partial to them. In any case the amount of sincerity with which the author presented this article was truly remarkable, given the ridiculousness of the subject matter.
It's pretty funny hearing all the history that goes behind the happy dancing tube guys. It's also not surprising that these started out out as sculptures then turned into advertisement and then into scarecrows. I wonder if die-hard artists or art lovers have ever actually considered them as art and sculpture or just as those annoying balloons outside car dealerships. For such an innovative sculpture, it definitely doesn't get much thought. I never even stopped to think about the process behind making them inflate and dance. They're much more complicated than I would have ever guessed!
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