Blog #8 Why would you take into consideration culture when developing your artwork?

Culture must be taken into consideration as you never want to use visual imagery or verbal communication that may cause offence to the audience. Take for example blue jeans are a popular and well known fashion item in the western world however in North Korea it is seen as a symbol of American impirialisim. As a result wearing blue jeans has been band, and is a punishable criminal offence. Here in this example If an artist is commissioned to create any promotional material for the north Korean Market, he or she must take into consideration that this law will create some limitations as to what  images are deemed permissible for this market. 

Considering culture and truly understanding it can be to an artist advantage and have a positive effect as well. Take for example In a campaign that shows a truly "adventurous" approach to catching the eye of the young bi-cultural Latino market, Levi's took five young U.S. Hispanics on a journey this summer from Alaska to Argentina on the Pan-American Highway. Each of the five travelers were  fully dressed in Levi's new Work Wear line, stopping at ten different cities and pitching in on work projects involving the arts. Their experiences are documented in a ten-week reality show, "Norte a Sur: Una Ruta, 5 Experiencias" (North to South: One Route, 5 Experiences), that began airing in late September on Discovery en Español. The Levi's market research team took its understanding of the culture of their target audience. They discovered from reaserch that young Hispanics are even more likely than their general market counterparts to have smart phones, blogs, and  are indeed active users of social media. To build hype for the show, they gave each of the five pioneros iPhones, which they used throughout their journeys to post updates to the show's website and their own Facebook pages.  In this example we see were culture must be taken into consideration in order to effectively reach target audiences and communicate a company’s brand image and gain the appropriate consumer response.