I've noticed a trend in TV ads lately: paper. It caught my attention maybe six months ago with ads from CTI, Comcast and Microsoft. Beautiful paper butterflies unfurling on flowering paper trees, hand-drawn animated collages, flat-looking paper doll cut-outs. Just now, I witnessed back-to-back UPS and AT&T ads use the same "paper" treatment.
I'm sure that I'm not only one to notice this trend, but I can't find anything specifically about it online. As a book artist, it's sure caught my attention! My guess is that it's art directors' attempts to reflect a back-to-basics mood of the American consumer. While unemployment soars, we have no stomach for glitz and slickness. Maybe we can handle beautiful, tactile, simple paper.
For a taste of what I'm noticing, check out these short clips:
Thanks to Australian book artist Sara Bowen, I now have a name for this paper art trend I've noticed in advertising: PAPERgraphic. It seems graphic artist Yulia Brodskaya (and others doing this lovely work), may be behind some of these big campaigns.
Speaking of which, I recently saw a 2-year old music video of Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out with a similar treatment.