As someone who works in an online environment, I have this habit of relating a large portion of my ‘in real life’ experiences (what online chatters refer to as irl) to online phenomena or occurrences.

I recently watched a movie called Factory Girl, which rekindled an old interest in the roots of pop art and everything Warhol, so to speak. As a result I’ve been finding some startling similarities between Andy Warhol and some recent views on online vs. traditional print recruitment methods.

Many arguments have arisen in recent times over the perceived corruption of pop arty, community based, wholly unreliable online news and methods of marketing. Most arguments for traditional methods of advertising and news broadcasting claim the information is more accurate, objective or fact based when found in a magazine or newspaper publication.

Essentially, Warhol’s signature piece, Campbell’s Soup Cans, gave rise to impassioned debates on what is ’’real’ fine art during the 60s. Waves of contempt poured out of traditionalist art communities towards his mass-produced, mechanically made, silkscreen paintings and compositions.

Claiming the pieces were defeating the purpose of artistic talent and expressionism, these communities were immediately distrustful and illogical about pop art’s commentary - on not only American lives – but on the lives of commercially encased populations around the world. Thus they disregarded the medium as fluffy and irrelevant for serious considerations, but a novel gimmick none the less.

With the rise in instant communication and information sharing, it is an even faster, more competitive and commodified world we live in today. And where it is important to preserve the nature of objective and information-rich content, it doesn’t seem appropriate to pit one medium (traditional print) against increasingly more efficient and cost-effective online methods.

The way forward - and to success – is essentially finding a balanced approach using both offline and online marketing methods. In other words, a hybrid strategy using both the advantages of reaching print readers of a certain class, age and background - while still utilising the ever increasing (and considerably vast) internet audience through effective search optimisation tactics (HR-SEO).

Many in the print community today (despite their arguments against diluting the principles of print as a medium) have begun to realise that the extinction of the medium may be inevitable, unless that proverbial ostrich gets its head out of the hole.

To close, it’s now widely acknowledged that the fusion of pop art, with serious and informative commentary on modern life as we know it, was a viable and profitable hybrid of fine art and commoditisation. Andy Warhol best summed it up:

“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is an art, and working is art, and good business is the best art.” Andy Warhol