From 2D to 3D: A new dimension?
“Is the glass half empty or half full?” That’s a question that has always fascinated me. The glass I saw in a shop located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris was neither half-empty nor half-full. To be frank, my memory can’t really tell, as the only thing that would remind me of this transparent jar is this little key holder, resting on a pile of hundreds of fellow beings.
A tiny plastic frying pan attached to a metallic ring.
The superficial combination reminded me of one of those redundant and childish mass-produced objects, made in China perhaps. A pretty boring and marginal object I would say, in a first observation.
A sticker showing the Panzani logo on the frying pan’s flat surface.
This element made me realize that the concerned object isn’t entirely marginal. “Panzani … Aussi!” That’s what I was reminded of in my second observation. The day before, I was reading an excerpt of the Rhetoric of the Image by Barth, and I was impressed by how powerful can advertising be. As I was surrounded everyday by 2D advertisements, having in my sight a 3D version of this rising power, struck me. Not to mention, the excerpt I read was centered on an advertisement of the same brand. As I was recalling my recent reading, a series of questions made up into my mind: was the French brand’s Italianicity meant to be passed from the sight to the touch, to the feeling of having a frying pan labeled Panzani in our hand? Was it meant to be attached to a car’s key, a way of promoting the new habit of cooking Panzani pastas after work? My mind couldn’t help playing the game of bridging the brand’s two advertising forms.
Knowing that this little object was created a long time ago, I was wondering when and why did advertising expand itself by taking the form of mass produced objects. And more specifically, why did it take the form of a key holder. I was curious to know if key holders at the time were trendy objects through which people would identify themselves as belonging to a specific group of people, a specific social rank.
Yet, the new dimension taken by advertisement is still a mystery to me.
