The Adman Then And Now

This wry diptych stages time as a punchline: the crisp, black-suited “ad man” of then—surrounded by promises of soap, hair tonic, and grinning poster-idealizations—mutates into the casual figure of now, who no longer sells products so much as sells himself. The pared-down line and watery color washes leave generous negative space, allowing the slogans and speech bubble (“Genius… that’s me”) to ring like public noise echoing inside a private delusion. By mirroring the framed advertisements on either side, the artist turns consumer culture into a hall of reflections where confidence, vanity, and self-branding become indistinguishable, and the modern “pitch” is revealed as an inward, self-congratulating performance.