GMAT考试写作指导：Issue写作范文八五

　　85. Advertising is dearly the most influential art form in this century. It is therefore

　　tempting to think it is also the most important. However, great artistic achievement is

　　determined by criteria beyond mere influence. And when examined against these

　　criteria, the genre of advertising does not measure up as truly important.

　　To begin with, great art inspires us to look at the human situation from new

　　perspectives. For example, early impressionist paintings challenge our thinking about

　　visual perception and about the nature of the reality we assume we see. Other works,

　　like Rodins The Thinker, capture for our reflection the essential value of human

　　rationality, in stark contrast, advertising encourages people not to think or reflect at all,

　　but simply to spend.

　　In addition, the significance of great artistic achievement transcends time, even

　　when it reflects a particular age. Yet advertising, by its very nature, is transient; in an

　　eye-blink, todays hot image or slogan is yesterdays news. Of course, the timelessness

　　of a work cannot be determined in its own time. Still, its hard to imagine even the most

　　powerful advertisement living beyond its current ad campaign.

　　Admittedly, one ad―Andy Warhols painting of the Campbell Soup can―has

　　achieved timelessness. But notice the irony; the packaging or advertising image was

　　banal until it was elevated above mere graphic design to high art. The lesson here is that

　　advertising, in itself, probably will not achieve great importance as art. But taken up by

　　the artist as content in a larger commentary on society, it can become transcendent.

　　In sum, artists will no doubt continue to comment on advertising and on the

　　materialistic values it reflects and promotes. But the ads themselves, however influential

　　in marketing terms, fail to fulfill all the criteria for important art.