January 17, 2025 • 22 mins
We peel open the $6 million banana to explore how brands have leveraged this provocative piece of art for their own content creation.
Get show notes for this episode and check out past episodes of the Speaking Human podcast by visiting speakinghuman.com.
#Podcast #SpeakingHuman #VO #Branding #Marketing #Advertising #Business #conceptual #Brands #Ads #simplify #popculture #art #Brands #CocaCola #banana #Comedian #MaurizioCattelan
Get show notes for this episode and check out past episodes of the Speaking Human podcast by visiting speakinghuman.com.
#Podcast #SpeakingHuman #VO #Branding #Marketing #Advertising #Business #conceptual #Brands #Ads #simplify #popculture #art #Brands #CocaCola #banana #Comedian #MaurizioCattelan
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speeding Human.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Today, on Speaking Human, we peel open the six million
dollar banana to explore how brands have leveraged this provocative
piece of art for their own content creation.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Spaking Human.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Welcome to Speaking Human, where we simplify the world of
marketing for humans. I'm Shad Calmly and with me is
my co host Patrick Jebber. So, Patrick, let me roll
you off a list here you ready, Yeah, A blank
white canvas, a lock of Elvis's hair, an invisible sculpture,
(00:49):
and a banana tape to the wall. No, these are
not things I have in my desk that they could be.
These are all things that have been sold at art auctions.
The question for you is are these things all art?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Are you saying, like, can anything be art? Because that's
essentially what we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah, what is art?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Well?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
You know, I mean for listeners. I come from an
art background, and I say this because I appreciate that
art can be interpreted in many many ways. By definition,
let's just say upfront, art is defined as the expression
or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in
(01:34):
a visual form such as a painting or a sculpture. Right,
That's how we usually think of art, but produced into
works that can be appreciated primarily for their beauty or
what they say, emotional power. I say that sort of
starting is the definition of art. But then there are
those people who believe that the definition itself is not
all encompassing, right, like that art can be all of
(01:56):
these things and more or put simply, you know, duct tape,
banana could be art, but it's you know, it's all subjective.
Like we always talk about is it art? I mean,
you know, if you think it's art, it's art.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I kind of went through the same, almost the exact
same process that you just described, you know, I'm like, ah,
let me, let me find the answer to this question.
So I went digging for all these kind of definitions,
you know, and then I start picking apart these definitions,
you know, kind of finding flaws where I'm like, well,
(02:28):
does it have to be conscious? Do they have to
be aesthetic objects? You kind of start like pulling out
words and You're like, does it have to be this?
Does it have to be that? Can it be anything
created that you know just elicits a response, you know,
something that makes you like think or feel or laugh
or cry. Can the act of peeling a potato? Can
that be art? Does it depend on how you're doing
(02:50):
it or what you're doing it for? Does that matter?
All these kind of questions come into play. Probably the
best thing I saw with somebody said, you know, anything
perceived as art is art because it's just one of
these questions that's like super hard to answer, you know,
there's no real answer to it. It's kind of like
what is love? Baby, don't hurt me, don't hurt me
(03:11):
no more.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Oh, that's a great comparison. I think of it as
whatever a person feels is you know, like this idea
that at its essence, you know, its truest form, art
can be almost anything, or more importantly, anything can be art.
It's about the person. It's about how like you said,
the perception. And I came across the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
(03:36):
and like they just argue this idea of the definition
of art, right, not even just what is art? Like
is that art?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Or is this art?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
They talk about like the definition of it, and they
really argue how to classify it. And that's a philosophical question, right,
because it's it goes back to the essence. I guess
of what is humanity, because how we perceive art is
part of the human nature. So duct tate banana, some
people perceive that as art, and so therefore it is
(04:06):
you know.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah, and even those and I've had this response to
like pieces of art before, and you probably have two,
And maybe that in itself will tell you that something
is art if you respond to it this way where
you're like, see something in a museum where you're like,
but this, yeah, you know, yeah, I don't know. Are
we walking? Are we pushing the limits here?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And that's sort of the beauty of it, right, It
is like somebody else could look at something that seems
very like trivial or not I guess, very creative, and
another person looks at that and sees.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
God, beauty.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, yeah, God, I mean, you know, like the whole
world opens up for them. And that's kind of the
amazing thing about art. You know, you can hate it,
I could love it. So there is something transcendent when
you come to that, you know, And then there's like
varying levels of that like is it good? And again
another thing that is subjective the person. So we're not
(05:01):
trying to tell our listeners what good art is we're
just sort of exploring this idea of well today, duct
tape banana.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, the six million dollar banana Comedian as it's known.
So very big, deep way to start the show, when
really what we're here to talk about is banana tape
to the wall with duct tape, with duct tape. I
think that's important that it's duct tape.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, oh yeah, because I think that's what made it.
If it had been scotch tape, not as effective.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Now it's not. It's selling for at least a million less.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Oh yeah, for sure. So little background. The work of art,
a banana duct tape to a wall was titled Comedian
and it was a piece of conceptual art by Maurizio Catalan.
It's basically just that, just how you imagine it, piece
of duct tape over top of a banana to the wall.
(05:59):
So what made this such newsworthy was not that long
ago bitters pushed the sale price of the piece of
art to roughly six million dollars. That's a lot of
money for a banana duct tape al wall. But not
long after buying it, the entrepreneur who just so happens
(06:19):
to be a cryptocurrency entrepreneur bought the piece and then
ate it recorded this like process of eating the banana.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, well, what else are you gonna do? It's gonna
get brown, it's gonna get mushy.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
So, you know, obviously this made its way through the
news cycle. A lot of media outlets picked it up.
It was a big deal. But also then brands jumped
on board, you know, and took advantage of the press
that came from this.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Yeah, it's one of those things that kind of becomes
a pop culture sensation in some ways. And you know
these things people love to kind of jump on top of,
ride the back of a viral sensation as its sandworms
its way through a culture for like a month or whatever.
The life of those things are. So we got some,
(07:07):
you know, pretty clever ones, I thought, and we're each
going to share a couple of those that we enjoyed
or we thought were interesting or shareworthy here today. You
want me to kick it off, you want to? Yeah,
all right? So the one I chose, you know, this
is a brand close to my heart in some ways,
something I enjoy. I mean, my daughter likes to crunch
on together and that is Cheetos. Oh yeah, Now, Cheetos
(07:31):
did something very similar with their effort to Comedian. They
followed the auction route. They posted a single Cheetos puff
duct taped to a white wall for sale. Well, we
back that up. It's sort of a white wall. There
were some cheesy fingerprints on it. This piece also had
the great title Mischief by Chester. So they posted this
(07:56):
actual sale item on eBay. Ended up with ninety bits.
It's selling for over twenty thousand dollars just recently on
November twenty eight. Now it wasn't just the art though,
You're like, oh, somebody's really buying that for twenty thousand dollars.
The winner also received a supply of Cheetos in the
amount equivalent to their bid, which of course begs the question,
(08:18):
how many bags of Cheetos is twenty thousand dollars worth?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I would love to know that. I guess somebody's gonna
do the math there, right, How many bags is that?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
It's gotta be some couple of truckloads. Maybe get a
gift card. I don't know what are you gonna do
with all those Cheetos?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Right?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
But I like this effort for a couple of reasons.
One was, you know, because It kind of plays both sides.
It both parodies Comedian while also paying homage to it.
It might be poking fun at it, but in a
lot of ways, it's actually its own piece of pop art.
And you know, received a similarly inflated price reaction. This
(08:54):
banana sold for six million dollars. In this Cheeto sold
for twenty thousand dollars, probably an equal bump that you're like,
is that really what it's worth? But yeah, I liked
the way this whole thing was put together. They didn't
like overly do it and like put a whole lot
into it. You know, they just kind of like gave
it a quick description that matches what the piece actually
(09:16):
was in their description. Mischief by Chester Cheetah featuring a
Cheetos puff and a piece of tape. Installation dimensions variable
because it's Cheetos. Crafted in twenty twenty four. This is
edition one of one. The winning bidder will receive a
single Cheetos puff and a strip of tape. This work
is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist,
(09:39):
and then you get the kind of little disclaimer at
the bottom that tells you you're going to get the
Cheetos too, So, you know, they kind of just put
this simple thing together on eBay, promoted it on social
you know, kind of pushed it around so that people
picked it up and talked about it. So it felt
fun but also fitting. And it's just kind of a weird, beautiful,
little relic of this moment in time where this banana
(09:59):
or different food things taped to the wall were a thing. Right.
Who knows, maybe in twenty years someone will be selling
this eBay post as a work of art.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Two things I love about this one one is the
cheeto actually does have the same shape as the banana.
The other part of it that I kind of like
that you know, nobody ever really probably picks up on,
but the fact that it's Cheetos. To me, it's got
this level of cheesiness, right that they're sort of being
cheesy with their interpretation of something that was already kind
(10:32):
of considered a little cheesy, you know what I mean,
Like this banana duct tape is kind of like okay,
really Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
They get bonus points too because in their Instagram posts,
one of them where they were kind of promoting this,
they say no shade to the prints of potassium. Yeah,
I wish I enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, they were having a good time with it, and
that's the way it should be. One that I'm sort
of pulling out as something that I thought was one
poking fun but also like to a level that is
just absurdity. Liquid death tape to a wall. Yeah, duct
tape to a wall. Selling it on their website Can
of art is sort of how it's titled. They're selling it.
(11:11):
There's no auction. It's five point two million dollars, so
they're essentially selling a can of liquid Death for that
amount as piece of art. It does say it comes
with a certificate authenticity, just like you know, the piece
of art would have a roll of duct tape and
a ten year supply of mango chainsaw. That's the Liquid
(11:33):
Death water that's taped to the wall. And you know,
this is Liquid Death's thing. The pricelessness that was put
upon this piece of art. There's definitely a price tag
to it. You know, it's like what ten cents for
banana is what they said. So you know the fact
that it became priceless and then all these brands piggybacking
off of that. I mean, it is sort of this
(11:53):
sensationalized absurdity and liquid death?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Does that best talk about something that's in there? Wheel have?
They probably just saw a comedian and they're like this, Well,
we got to do something with this. Another one that
begs the question, what is a ten year supply of
mango chainsaw? What does that look like? How many are
we talking? Is that as much as you can drink?
Or is there is there a number attached to that?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, I feel like you're not going to get as
much mango chainsaw liquid death as you would Cheetos in theory, Like,
I'm not prices, right, I'm not Bob Barker or Drew
what's his face, Drew Carrey, Drew Carrey. So I couldn't
tell you what the exact price of those two things are,
but I know liquid death is like two or three
bucks a can. But ten years, yeah, what if you
(12:37):
drink to a day five point two million dollars, that's
a lot. It's not twenty thousand dollars, you know what
I mean?
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Like Cheetah is twenty thousand dollars of Cheetos or ten
years of mango chainsaw?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, hard to say which one's more. The other thing
I had questions on is there more than one, but
I like that the Can of Arch on their website
does have thirty eight reviews.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, it does, and one of them is Mango for It,
and it said I drank the ten year supply of
Mango chainsaw in one sitting, and now I can't stop
pooping whole mangos. Thankfully, I've been able to use the
role a duct tape that came with it, and now
I'm taping mangoes and making my own art moreover Rembrandt.
So you know, there's some fun things that have come
(13:23):
from that. People engaging with the brand, which is really
what it's all about, or maybe they want to five
point two million dollars, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Again, I like the name Can of Art.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
You can't beat that, you know. And this is the
thing brands coming up with creative ways again, their own
art right interpretations of how to sort of like work
within this viral nature of the news cycle, pop culture,
things that are happening, something that becomes very very popular,
(13:53):
How do you interpret that and then create your own
sort of take on it so that people will engage
with your brand.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Yeah, I definitely agree. I like them both. And again,
the fun factor is here that gets people involved, to
get them engaged, and it's a simple idea that translates
very well. All right, So those are some examples of
brands how they've done it. Let's do a little mind thundering, Patrick,
mind thundering for those of you who don't know, it's
(14:20):
our sort of word for brainstorming. So what we're going
to do right now is we're each going to share
one idea for a brand or product based piece of
art around this sort of concept or you know, a
different sort of concept. So basically how a brand or
product could create their own kind of artwork. Is that
how you kind of interpret this.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, you know, or just a piece of art that
sort of comes from this idea of consumerism.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yeah, it's based on, you know, a well known product
or a specific brand, for example, like a garbage can
filled with bottles and cans of New Coke and crystal pepsi,
which we just talked about in a recent episode. So
what do you have for this for your kind brand
or products piece of artwork?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
So this is how I interpreted it. Paying tribute to
one of my favorite comedians, which I thought was Apropos
due to the original name of the duct tap banana comedian.
I'm thinking of Mitch Hedberg's quirky one liners. Okay, okay,
So my piece of art would be a vending machine
that houses vending machines, and yeah, it would have to
(15:23):
be really big, but it could house a lot of products,
products being going further down that rabbit hole. Mitch Hedberg
has a whole piece about rece's right. I'd probably make
it a vending machine of vending machines filled with reces,
and you know, you'd be choosing what reces you want,
and then it would just PLoP out an entire vending
(15:44):
machine that could be a work of art, a giant
vending machine with smaller vending machines in it with rec
cups inside.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah, I definitely get the visual. I love that. I
thought you were going to, you know, go and kind
of one of those endless things where the vending machines
just keep getting smaller inside the vending machines.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
I mean that'd be great. How you do that, I
don't know. So you know, I'm kind of going one
level deep, which is by far pretty elaborate, but you
could keep going.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yeah, push a button and get a vending machine from
a vending machine.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
It's almost like a fun house, right, and then you
get this giant vending machine coming out. I think I
could see it. I could see it happening.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah, I can picture it in my mind.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
How about you?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
What do you got from mind thundering?
Speaker 3 (16:31):
So here's here's kind of where my brain was going.
I don't know about you, but it's tissue time of
year in my house. Those little white bastards are crumpled
up everywhere on tables and garbage cans and pockets, torn
to shreds in the dryer sometimes. So I was thinking
of something with the Kleenex. You know, a single twisted
(16:53):
Kleenex can be in a lot of different shapes, so
that even as like a stand alone can be a
piece of art, could be a close up view of
a garbage can filled with used kleenexes so you almost
can't even tell what they are. Maybe it's like a
picture out a window and it's used kleenexes falling down
(17:13):
like snowfall. Mm. Or here's my final one that you're
gonna love, You're not. A sculpture of a giant Kleenex
box made out of used hardened green and yellowish tissues.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, Yeah, that's gross. I don't like it. I don't
like that.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
I thought it would be an immediate turnoff for you.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
But that's sort of the beauty of art. I mean,
it could be.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Repulsive sometimes you want to get that stomach churning response
from people.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Right, yeah, because you have, you know, the clean tissue,
which evokes you know, like, oh comfort, and then you
have the used tissue, which evokes discussed right. Nobody wants
you to throw them a used tissue, but if you
give them a tissue that's clean and pure and white
is snow, they will take that all day long and
(18:03):
they'll be like, oh, thank you for that tissue.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah, or even cause attention to this idea that we
have a product that we're purchasing in mass every day
to catch this goop that comes out of our faces. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Once upon a time, people carried around handkerchiefs, which was
the reusable version of that. Our fathers, yeah, and our
father's fathers and our mother's mothers, you know, like and
and to think that they reuse that multiple times, you know,
in a day, even before they would wash it. I
remember my grandpa's I'm pretty sure that they didn't wash
(18:41):
their handkerchiefs even every day, which is a little scary.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
I've always been disturbed by the hanky. I remember being
a kid and like my dad or a grandparent being like, here,
you want this hanky or you want to don't you
carry a hanky? And I'd be like, ah, god, no, Yeah,
I use a product that I could crumple up and
throw away.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Like to add to the landfills.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I like to ruin the earth with my convenience.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, so I think that, I mean, those are those
are both really interesting approaches to the same idea. Yeah,
to the same idea, the same sort of task, right
of creating a piece of art yours. I like the sculptures.
I like the tissues floating down through the window. You know.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Yeah, it just shows you and when you think about,
you know, kind of the way you came out and
the way I came at it, the ways you can
sort of do it and even think to like some
of the Andy Warhol prints and things like that, just
an endless a way you can make art out of,
even something like brands and products, These things we use
every day and don't necessarily think much about beyond consuming, right.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
And therein lies you know, the sort of the biggest
takeaway I think from this whole story is that the
world is a crazy place. It's unpredictable, these things happen, right.
The Internet has only heightened and emboldened the wild things
that can and will happen, like duct tape, banana. And
(20:05):
the lesson is that, you know, depending on your brand
and the voice, like we always talk about, if it
fit your brand, it could mingle in a place like
this with all this chaos, you know, this unpredictable nature
of you know, these things that occur like this where
you know there's an auction and something sells for an
egregious amount of money and people are talking about it.
(20:27):
And how do you partake in that interaction that's happening online.
I think there's all kinds of ways, you know, and
it's really coming back to just being creative of yourself
as a brand.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Yeah, now it's a great point. I think people knock
the banana as this very simple idea, but I think
it was easier for brands to pick up on. It
was easy for everybody to parody, it was easy for
people to talk about.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
That to me is kind of the real banana effect.
It's one of those things we push so hard away
from simple A lot of the time we're like, ah,
we can't do that, it's too simple. But that's the
kind of stuff that easily penetrates, you know, the brain,
and it's just soaks in.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
So sometimes you know, simple as the way to go.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
This is probably the simplest application of that was the
Savannah Bananas. Did you see that one where they did
the t shirt and it's you know, their mascot is
a banana, and they did the duct tape you know,
graphic on the shirt and they sold like sixty two
of these limited edition shirts for sixty two dollars each.
Super simple. It wasn't overly crazy. It's a fun brand
(21:29):
to begin with, right, so they can have fun like
this with it, and it's it seems like an obvious
no brainer.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
It's right there.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Yeah, And that's the key is it's so simple. It's obvious,
and you think, oh, we should do this, because why
wouldn't we.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Well said, well said, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
So we hope you enjoyed this little tibit. Sometimes we'll
you know, have these episodes where we kind of go
over one specific thing. But I think we got some
mind thundering out of there. That's quality mind thundering. I
heard some thunder happening.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
We talked about the nature of art. Yeah, we did
mind thundering, some great brand examples. We went to some
interesting places here with all based on a banana taped
to the wall.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, we hope we gave you some things to think about.
You know, feel free to send us feedback. You know
where to send it, but if you don't, it's feedback
at speakinghuman dot com. But that's it for today's episode.
You can find current and past episodes of the podcast
on speaking human dot com. We'll be back in two
weeks with another episode of Speaking Human. Catch you then
(22:35):
Bananas
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Speaking Human
Speeding Human.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Today, on Speaking Human, we peel open the six million
dollar banana to explore how brands have leveraged this provocative
piece of art for their own content creation.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Spaking Human.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Welcome to Speaking Human, where we simplify the world of
marketing for humans. I'm Shad Calmly and with me is
my co host Patrick Jebber. So, Patrick, let me roll
you off a list here you ready, Yeah, A blank
white canvas, a lock of Elvis's hair, an invisible sculpture,
(00:49):
and a banana tape to the wall. No, these are
not things I have in my desk that they could be.
These are all things that have been sold at art auctions.
The question for you is are these things all art?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Are you saying, like, can anything be art? Because that's
essentially what we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah, what is art?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Well?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
You know, I mean for listeners. I come from an
art background, and I say this because I appreciate that
art can be interpreted in many many ways. By definition,
let's just say upfront, art is defined as the expression
or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in
(01:34):
a visual form such as a painting or a sculpture. Right,
That's how we usually think of art, but produced into
works that can be appreciated primarily for their beauty or
what they say, emotional power. I say that sort of
starting is the definition of art. But then there are
those people who believe that the definition itself is not
all encompassing, right, like that art can be all of
(01:56):
these things and more or put simply, you know, duct tape,
banana could be art, but it's you know, it's all subjective.
Like we always talk about is it art? I mean,
you know, if you think it's art, it's art.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I kind of went through the same, almost the exact
same process that you just described, you know, I'm like, ah,
let me, let me find the answer to this question.
So I went digging for all these kind of definitions,
you know, and then I start picking apart these definitions,
you know, kind of finding flaws where I'm like, well,
(02:28):
does it have to be conscious? Do they have to
be aesthetic objects? You kind of start like pulling out
words and You're like, does it have to be this?
Does it have to be that? Can it be anything
created that you know just elicits a response, you know,
something that makes you like think or feel or laugh
or cry. Can the act of peeling a potato? Can
that be art? Does it depend on how you're doing
(02:50):
it or what you're doing it for? Does that matter?
All these kind of questions come into play. Probably the
best thing I saw with somebody said, you know, anything
perceived as art is art because it's just one of
these questions that's like super hard to answer, you know,
there's no real answer to it. It's kind of like
what is love? Baby, don't hurt me, don't hurt me
(03:11):
no more.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Oh, that's a great comparison. I think of it as
whatever a person feels is you know, like this idea
that at its essence, you know, its truest form, art
can be almost anything, or more importantly, anything can be art.
It's about the person. It's about how like you said,
the perception. And I came across the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
(03:36):
and like they just argue this idea of the definition
of art, right, not even just what is art? Like
is that art?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Or is this art?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
They talk about like the definition of it, and they
really argue how to classify it. And that's a philosophical question, right,
because it's it goes back to the essence. I guess
of what is humanity, because how we perceive art is
part of the human nature. So duct tate banana, some
people perceive that as art, and so therefore it is
(04:06):
you know.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah, and even those and I've had this response to
like pieces of art before, and you probably have two,
And maybe that in itself will tell you that something
is art if you respond to it this way where
you're like, see something in a museum where you're like,
but this, yeah, you know, yeah, I don't know. Are
we walking? Are we pushing the limits here?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And that's sort of the beauty of it, right, It
is like somebody else could look at something that seems
very like trivial or not I guess, very creative, and
another person looks at that and sees.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
God, beauty.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, yeah, God, I mean, you know, like the whole
world opens up for them. And that's kind of the
amazing thing about art. You know, you can hate it,
I could love it. So there is something transcendent when
you come to that, you know, And then there's like
varying levels of that like is it good? And again
another thing that is subjective the person. So we're not
(05:01):
trying to tell our listeners what good art is we're
just sort of exploring this idea of well today, duct
tape banana.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, the six million dollar banana Comedian as it's known.
So very big, deep way to start the show, when
really what we're here to talk about is banana tape
to the wall with duct tape, with duct tape. I
think that's important that it's duct tape.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, oh yeah, because I think that's what made it.
If it had been scotch tape, not as effective.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Now it's not. It's selling for at least a million less.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Oh yeah, for sure. So little background. The work of art,
a banana duct tape to a wall was titled Comedian
and it was a piece of conceptual art by Maurizio Catalan.
It's basically just that, just how you imagine it, piece
of duct tape over top of a banana to the wall.
(05:59):
So what made this such newsworthy was not that long
ago bitters pushed the sale price of the piece of
art to roughly six million dollars. That's a lot of
money for a banana duct tape al wall. But not
long after buying it, the entrepreneur who just so happens
(06:19):
to be a cryptocurrency entrepreneur bought the piece and then
ate it recorded this like process of eating the banana.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, well, what else are you gonna do? It's gonna
get brown, it's gonna get mushy.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
So, you know, obviously this made its way through the
news cycle. A lot of media outlets picked it up.
It was a big deal. But also then brands jumped
on board, you know, and took advantage of the press
that came from this.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Yeah, it's one of those things that kind of becomes
a pop culture sensation in some ways. And you know
these things people love to kind of jump on top of,
ride the back of a viral sensation as its sandworms
its way through a culture for like a month or whatever.
The life of those things are. So we got some,
(07:07):
you know, pretty clever ones, I thought, and we're each
going to share a couple of those that we enjoyed
or we thought were interesting or shareworthy here today. You
want me to kick it off, you want to? Yeah,
all right? So the one I chose, you know, this
is a brand close to my heart in some ways,
something I enjoy. I mean, my daughter likes to crunch
on together and that is Cheetos. Oh yeah, Now, Cheetos
(07:31):
did something very similar with their effort to Comedian. They
followed the auction route. They posted a single Cheetos puff
duct taped to a white wall for sale. Well, we
back that up. It's sort of a white wall. There
were some cheesy fingerprints on it. This piece also had
the great title Mischief by Chester. So they posted this
(07:56):
actual sale item on eBay. Ended up with ninety bits.
It's selling for over twenty thousand dollars just recently on
November twenty eight. Now it wasn't just the art though,
You're like, oh, somebody's really buying that for twenty thousand dollars.
The winner also received a supply of Cheetos in the
amount equivalent to their bid, which of course begs the question,
(08:18):
how many bags of Cheetos is twenty thousand dollars worth?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I would love to know that. I guess somebody's gonna
do the math there, right, How many bags is that?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
It's gotta be some couple of truckloads. Maybe get a
gift card. I don't know what are you gonna do
with all those Cheetos?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Right?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
But I like this effort for a couple of reasons.
One was, you know, because It kind of plays both sides.
It both parodies Comedian while also paying homage to it.
It might be poking fun at it, but in a
lot of ways, it's actually its own piece of pop art.
And you know, received a similarly inflated price reaction. This
(08:54):
banana sold for six million dollars. In this Cheeto sold
for twenty thousand dollars, probably an equal bump that you're like,
is that really what it's worth? But yeah, I liked
the way this whole thing was put together. They didn't
like overly do it and like put a whole lot
into it. You know, they just kind of like gave
it a quick description that matches what the piece actually
(09:16):
was in their description. Mischief by Chester Cheetah featuring a
Cheetos puff and a piece of tape. Installation dimensions variable
because it's Cheetos. Crafted in twenty twenty four. This is
edition one of one. The winning bidder will receive a
single Cheetos puff and a strip of tape. This work
is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist,
(09:39):
and then you get the kind of little disclaimer at
the bottom that tells you you're going to get the
Cheetos too, So, you know, they kind of just put
this simple thing together on eBay, promoted it on social
you know, kind of pushed it around so that people
picked it up and talked about it. So it felt
fun but also fitting. And it's just kind of a weird, beautiful,
little relic of this moment in time where this banana
(09:59):
or different food things taped to the wall were a thing. Right.
Who knows, maybe in twenty years someone will be selling
this eBay post as a work of art.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Two things I love about this one one is the
cheeto actually does have the same shape as the banana.
The other part of it that I kind of like
that you know, nobody ever really probably picks up on,
but the fact that it's Cheetos. To me, it's got
this level of cheesiness, right that they're sort of being
cheesy with their interpretation of something that was already kind
(10:32):
of considered a little cheesy, you know what I mean,
Like this banana duct tape is kind of like okay,
really Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
They get bonus points too because in their Instagram posts,
one of them where they were kind of promoting this,
they say no shade to the prints of potassium. Yeah,
I wish I enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, they were having a good time with it, and
that's the way it should be. One that I'm sort
of pulling out as something that I thought was one
poking fun but also like to a level that is
just absurdity. Liquid death tape to a wall. Yeah, duct
tape to a wall. Selling it on their website Can
of art is sort of how it's titled. They're selling it.
(11:11):
There's no auction. It's five point two million dollars, so
they're essentially selling a can of liquid Death for that
amount as piece of art. It does say it comes
with a certificate authenticity, just like you know, the piece
of art would have a roll of duct tape and
a ten year supply of mango chainsaw. That's the Liquid
(11:33):
Death water that's taped to the wall. And you know,
this is Liquid Death's thing. The pricelessness that was put
upon this piece of art. There's definitely a price tag
to it. You know, it's like what ten cents for
banana is what they said. So you know the fact
that it became priceless and then all these brands piggybacking
off of that. I mean, it is sort of this
(11:53):
sensationalized absurdity and liquid death?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Does that best talk about something that's in there? Wheel have?
They probably just saw a comedian and they're like this, Well,
we got to do something with this. Another one that
begs the question, what is a ten year supply of
mango chainsaw? What does that look like? How many are
we talking? Is that as much as you can drink?
Or is there is there a number attached to that?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, I feel like you're not going to get as
much mango chainsaw liquid death as you would Cheetos in theory, Like,
I'm not prices, right, I'm not Bob Barker or Drew
what's his face, Drew Carrey, Drew Carrey. So I couldn't
tell you what the exact price of those two things are,
but I know liquid death is like two or three
bucks a can. But ten years, yeah, what if you
(12:37):
drink to a day five point two million dollars, that's
a lot. It's not twenty thousand dollars, you know what
I mean?
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Like Cheetah is twenty thousand dollars of Cheetos or ten
years of mango chainsaw?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, hard to say which one's more. The other thing
I had questions on is there more than one, but
I like that the Can of Arch on their website
does have thirty eight reviews.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, it does, and one of them is Mango for It,
and it said I drank the ten year supply of
Mango chainsaw in one sitting, and now I can't stop
pooping whole mangos. Thankfully, I've been able to use the
role a duct tape that came with it, and now
I'm taping mangoes and making my own art moreover Rembrandt.
So you know, there's some fun things that have come
(13:23):
from that. People engaging with the brand, which is really
what it's all about, or maybe they want to five
point two million dollars, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Again, I like the name Can of Art.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
You can't beat that, you know. And this is the
thing brands coming up with creative ways again, their own
art right interpretations of how to sort of like work
within this viral nature of the news cycle, pop culture,
things that are happening, something that becomes very very popular,
(13:53):
How do you interpret that and then create your own
sort of take on it so that people will engage
with your brand.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Yeah, I definitely agree. I like them both. And again,
the fun factor is here that gets people involved, to
get them engaged, and it's a simple idea that translates
very well. All right, So those are some examples of
brands how they've done it. Let's do a little mind thundering, Patrick,
mind thundering for those of you who don't know, it's
(14:20):
our sort of word for brainstorming. So what we're going
to do right now is we're each going to share
one idea for a brand or product based piece of
art around this sort of concept or you know, a
different sort of concept. So basically how a brand or
product could create their own kind of artwork. Is that
how you kind of interpret this.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, you know, or just a piece of art that
sort of comes from this idea of consumerism.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yeah, it's based on, you know, a well known product
or a specific brand, for example, like a garbage can
filled with bottles and cans of New Coke and crystal pepsi,
which we just talked about in a recent episode. So
what do you have for this for your kind brand
or products piece of artwork?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
So this is how I interpreted it. Paying tribute to
one of my favorite comedians, which I thought was Apropos
due to the original name of the duct tap banana comedian.
I'm thinking of Mitch Hedberg's quirky one liners. Okay, okay,
So my piece of art would be a vending machine
that houses vending machines, and yeah, it would have to
(15:23):
be really big, but it could house a lot of products,
products being going further down that rabbit hole. Mitch Hedberg
has a whole piece about rece's right. I'd probably make
it a vending machine of vending machines filled with reces,
and you know, you'd be choosing what reces you want,
and then it would just PLoP out an entire vending
(15:44):
machine that could be a work of art, a giant
vending machine with smaller vending machines in it with rec
cups inside.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah, I definitely get the visual. I love that. I
thought you were going to, you know, go and kind
of one of those endless things where the vending machines
just keep getting smaller inside the vending machines.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
I mean that'd be great. How you do that, I
don't know. So you know, I'm kind of going one
level deep, which is by far pretty elaborate, but you
could keep going.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yeah, push a button and get a vending machine from
a vending machine.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
It's almost like a fun house, right, and then you
get this giant vending machine coming out. I think I
could see it. I could see it happening.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah, I can picture it in my mind.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
How about you?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
What do you got from mind thundering?
Speaker 3 (16:31):
So here's here's kind of where my brain was going.
I don't know about you, but it's tissue time of
year in my house. Those little white bastards are crumpled
up everywhere on tables and garbage cans and pockets, torn
to shreds in the dryer sometimes. So I was thinking
of something with the Kleenex. You know, a single twisted
(16:53):
Kleenex can be in a lot of different shapes, so
that even as like a stand alone can be a
piece of art, could be a close up view of
a garbage can filled with used kleenexes so you almost
can't even tell what they are. Maybe it's like a
picture out a window and it's used kleenexes falling down
(17:13):
like snowfall. Mm. Or here's my final one that you're
gonna love, You're not. A sculpture of a giant Kleenex
box made out of used hardened green and yellowish tissues.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, Yeah, that's gross. I don't like it. I don't
like that.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
I thought it would be an immediate turnoff for you.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
But that's sort of the beauty of art. I mean,
it could be.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Repulsive sometimes you want to get that stomach churning response
from people.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Right, yeah, because you have, you know, the clean tissue,
which evokes you know, like, oh comfort, and then you
have the used tissue, which evokes discussed right. Nobody wants
you to throw them a used tissue, but if you
give them a tissue that's clean and pure and white
is snow, they will take that all day long and
(18:03):
they'll be like, oh, thank you for that tissue.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah, or even cause attention to this idea that we
have a product that we're purchasing in mass every day
to catch this goop that comes out of our faces. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Once upon a time, people carried around handkerchiefs, which was
the reusable version of that. Our fathers, yeah, and our
father's fathers and our mother's mothers, you know, like and
and to think that they reuse that multiple times, you know,
in a day, even before they would wash it. I
remember my grandpa's I'm pretty sure that they didn't wash
(18:41):
their handkerchiefs even every day, which is a little scary.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
I've always been disturbed by the hanky. I remember being
a kid and like my dad or a grandparent being like, here,
you want this hanky or you want to don't you
carry a hanky? And I'd be like, ah, god, no, Yeah,
I use a product that I could crumple up and
throw away.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Like to add to the landfills.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I like to ruin the earth with my convenience.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, so I think that, I mean, those are those
are both really interesting approaches to the same idea. Yeah,
to the same idea, the same sort of task, right
of creating a piece of art yours. I like the sculptures.
I like the tissues floating down through the window. You know.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Yeah, it just shows you and when you think about,
you know, kind of the way you came out and
the way I came at it, the ways you can
sort of do it and even think to like some
of the Andy Warhol prints and things like that, just
an endless a way you can make art out of,
even something like brands and products, These things we use
every day and don't necessarily think much about beyond consuming, right.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
And therein lies you know, the sort of the biggest
takeaway I think from this whole story is that the
world is a crazy place. It's unpredictable, these things happen, right.
The Internet has only heightened and emboldened the wild things
that can and will happen, like duct tape, banana. And
(20:05):
the lesson is that, you know, depending on your brand
and the voice, like we always talk about, if it
fit your brand, it could mingle in a place like
this with all this chaos, you know, this unpredictable nature
of you know, these things that occur like this where
you know there's an auction and something sells for an
egregious amount of money and people are talking about it.
(20:27):
And how do you partake in that interaction that's happening online.
I think there's all kinds of ways, you know, and
it's really coming back to just being creative of yourself
as a brand.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Yeah, now it's a great point. I think people knock
the banana as this very simple idea, but I think
it was easier for brands to pick up on. It
was easy for everybody to parody, it was easy for
people to talk about.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
That to me is kind of the real banana effect.
It's one of those things we push so hard away
from simple A lot of the time we're like, ah,
we can't do that, it's too simple. But that's the
kind of stuff that easily penetrates, you know, the brain,
and it's just soaks in.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
So sometimes you know, simple as the way to go.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
This is probably the simplest application of that was the
Savannah Bananas. Did you see that one where they did
the t shirt and it's you know, their mascot is
a banana, and they did the duct tape you know,
graphic on the shirt and they sold like sixty two
of these limited edition shirts for sixty two dollars each.
Super simple. It wasn't overly crazy. It's a fun brand
(21:29):
to begin with, right, so they can have fun like
this with it, and it's it seems like an obvious
no brainer.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
It's right there.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Yeah, And that's the key is it's so simple. It's obvious,
and you think, oh, we should do this, because why
wouldn't we.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Well said, well said, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
So we hope you enjoyed this little tibit. Sometimes we'll
you know, have these episodes where we kind of go
over one specific thing. But I think we got some
mind thundering out of there. That's quality mind thundering. I
heard some thunder happening.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
We talked about the nature of art. Yeah, we did
mind thundering, some great brand examples. We went to some
interesting places here with all based on a banana taped
to the wall.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, we hope we gave you some things to think about.
You know, feel free to send us feedback. You know
where to send it, but if you don't, it's feedback
at speakinghuman dot com. But that's it for today's episode.
You can find current and past episodes of the podcast
on speaking human dot com. We'll be back in two
weeks with another episode of Speaking Human. Catch you then
(22:35):
Bananas
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Speaking Human
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.