Dali, Yes Dali, Sold Out to Cash In

Steve Hall

May. 18, 2007
1 min read

If you harbored the fantasy that master artists pre-dating Shepard Fairey and Andy Warhol never sold out to ad hype, be forewarned: your fantasy is just that.

Boing Boing points us to Dali himself pushing Lanvin chocolates, Veterano and – of all things – Alka-Seltzer.

The marketing minds behind brands like Red Bull and Apple can vouch for that legend goes a long way. Rumour has it Dali was stillborn, coming violently to life only after an uncle blew cigar smoke into his face.

After seeing the ads (which, because of or despite weird whimsy, are quite fascinating), you just may believe it.

Steve Hall

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Dali, Yes Dali, Sold Out to Cash In

Steve Hall

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TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

Research suggests that women who stop being endlessly accommodating aren’t becoming selfish — they’re reclaiming the psychological energy they’ve been spending on managing other people’s comfort at the expense of their own needs

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Psychology says people who read before bed every night don’t just sleep better — their brain is operating on a fundamentally different relationship with language, narrative, and emotional processing than the people who scroll

Global English Editing

Psychology says people who never post photos or personal updates on social media aren’t antisocial or sad — they made a quiet decision that their life is for living rather than performing, and they’ve never regretted it

Global English Editing

Psychology says the person who thanks the waiter every single time isn’t performing gratitude — they genuinely don’t experience service workers as invisible, and that’s rarer than it should be

Global English Editing

The loneliest version of retirement isn’t having no one to call it’s having a phone full of contacts and knowing that every single one of them will ask “how are you” without actually wanting the answer and you’ve gotten too tired to keep pretending that’s enough

Global English Editing

I found a letter my father wrote to my mother before I was born — and the 3 sentences in it that he never said out loud to anyone in our family while he was alive changed how I understand every conversation he had with me for 40 years

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