Automakers have been panicking throughout the recession that Gen Y is abandoning the American dream of car ownership (forget home ownership). The answer: create buzz and a cool factor by targeting the creative class. The above photo doesn't look like a custom publishing project by an automaker, and that's the whole point.
Mercedes-Benz is positioning The Avant/Garde Diaries as a digital project, curating interviews, video and photos promoting its events appealing to not-always-affluent but certainly influential creatives in key cities. It all kicked off with the brand's Transmission 1 event in Berlin, continued with Movement Copenhagen then the recent Transmission LA - AV hybrid arts/music/digital happening in Los Angeles curated by the Beastie Boys' Mike D.
Last week saw the opening of A/D's editorial office, at the corner of Broome and Mott Streets in New York's Nolita neighborhood, whith hipster fave photographer Cobrasnake on hand tophotograph the 700 guests who attended.
The so-called "avant-garde" branded content/entertainment series echoes Intel'sThe Creators Project with Vice — and makes you wonder what happenings of the 1950s and '60s would have been like had they been sponsored by brands. The answer: they wouldn't have. Although Andy Warhol probably would have let, say, Ford sponsor the last days of the Factory
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