Orwell Updated-- In An Infiniti Q50 TV Ad?

Or maybe it was Aldous Huxley's 1931 dystopian novel, Brave New World that the creators of Infinity's new television ad for the Q50 ("Factory of Life") based the new ad on. The blue chip advertising company, TBWA\CHIAT\DAY (part of the edgy and "disruptive" Omnicom marketing group) was also responsible for Apple's classic "1984" campaign for the newly introduced Macintosh (below) thirty years ago! That ad was conceived of by Steve Hayden, Brent Thomas and Lee Clow at Chiat/Day, in Venice, California and directed by Ridley Scott, who had just directed Blade Runner, based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, the year before.

Lee Clow, formerly Chief Creative Officer of TBWA/Worldwide, is now Chairman and Global Director. Advertising Age says he's the advertising industry's "art director guru. With his low-key, casual manner belying his hard-work ethic, the bearded adman-in-flip-flops' leadership style has brought TBWA/Chiat/Day virtually every national and international award and honor." Clow earned a 2-year degree from a community college, Santa Monica. He's obviously read 1984 and seen Blade Runner. I have no idea if he's ever heard of Huxley's Brave New World, but I'd bet he has and that the team that did the Infiniti ad has as well.

Huxley, who was living in Mussolini's fascist Italy when he wrote the book (set in London in the year 2540), has told people he was influenced by H.G. Wells' A Modern Utopia and Men Like Gods, although there is some controversy over whether or not Huxley also drew from Yevgeny Zamyatin's We. Fascism, corporate tyranny, behavioral conditioning and America's growing role in the world are all interwoven into the novel. He's not a fan of fascist, anti-Semitic American car manufacturer Henry Ford. Neil Postman contrasted the world's of Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Postman added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.

Special Monday afternoon DWT bonus: my favorite song by The Feelies: