m3rmaid🌙

During the 1950s when Andy Warhol worked as a commercial designer, Warhol made hundreds of personal Christmas drawings and greeting card graphics for clients, most notably Tiffany & Co. 

In fact, a substantial portion of the legendary pop artist’s oeuvre explores this seasonal theme, and come to think of it, this might not be out of character. After all, the notions of togetherness and friendship were very important to the artist. Additionally, anybody that’s read anything about Warhol will know that he loved the chance to celebrate. The parties at Warhol’s Factory have become modern myths, and it goes without saying that the Christmas season offers plenty of chances to meet others. However, most pertinent in regards to Warhol’s body of work is the culture of consumerism that has come to define the modern tradition of Christmas celebrations. But Warhol was also a deeply religious man—an aspect of the artist’s life that is often overlooked. As the son of Slovakian immigrants, Warhol was raised as a Catholic. Moreover, the commercial artist was also known to have volunteered regularly at homeless shelters.

Warhol kept on producing artworks for Christmas season all his life, from ink-and-paper drawing, wrapping paper or polaroids of Santa, poinsettias or of the Last Supper.

OKAY GUYS LISTEN

So I’ve been saying this for awhile now so I’m gonna say it on Tumblr too but: THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. Not only because HELL YES REPRESENTATION AND INCLUSION but–

Proctor and Gamble, which owns Secret, is a US-based corporation, and the US is a capitalist country. This means that corporations, especially BIG ones like this, are mostly interested in the bottom line. Sure, they might have employees or CEOs that are progressive, but when you’ve got an organization this big, there are SO MANY PEOPLE who have to approve a new marketing strategy, or a new add campaign, and basically, the way they do that is not “What’s morally correct or socially progressive” but “What’s going to sell?”

THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE? Ads like this? THIS MEANS THAT BEING PROGRESSIVE IS WHAT’S SELLING RIGHT NOW. 

This means that companies like Secret are looking at the numbers and crunching the data and saying “more people will buy our products if we are progressive and inclusive than if we are bigoted and exclusive so we’re going to be progressive and inclusive.” 

I DO NOT MEAN THIS TO BE CYNICAL. Quite the opposite. 

I know the alt-right and the hate groups are loud right now. But this, right here? This is PROOF that in a capitalist society like the US, the money of the progressive and inclusive group is still more powerful than the hatred of the right, and that? That means that there are more of us than there are of them. There are MORE people that believe this is where we should be going than not. And what’s more, there are ENOUGH more of us that corporate machines are willing to cater to our beliefs to sell their products. 

That. Is. HUGE. 

AND IT IS AMAZING.