The Best Commercials That Use Famous Works of Art

These ads show iconic paintings like you've never seen them.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Commercials tend to annoy us as bothersome breaks between our TV shows, but sometimes they are so creative that they're worth our attention. Some of the best commercials re-appropriate famous paintings to sell products. From Renaissance works to modern creations, these brands have cleverly adapted art history for their own purposes.

Perhaps it doesn't surprise you that Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Andy Warhol’s silkscreens seem to be the most popular among commercial producers, but companies occasionally rely on lesser-known works as well. See how brands like Apple, Samsung, Coca-Cola, and General Mills make use of masterpieces in our list of The Best Commercials That Use Famous Works of Art.

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Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup Can (Tomato) (1962)

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Brand: Campbell's Soup
Year: 2002

It would be surprising if Campbell's Soup never used one of Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans pieces in a commercial. In 2002, the brand finally made the connection. They placed three actors playing museum employees in front of a Warhol canvas with bowls of soup for an ad. This would probably be against the rules in most museums, however.

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa (1501-1517)

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Brand: Orange Telecommunications
Year: 2013

This commercial is for a telecom services provider in France, the home country of the Louvre where this famous painting is stored. Playing off the belief that Mona Lisa's eyes follow the viewer everywhere, Orange Telecommunications makes her wink.

Rene Magritte, The False Mirror (1928)

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Brand: DG Italia
Year: 2007

This surreal commercial, also the first TV commercial for DG Italia, features René Magritte’s The False Mirror. With the larger-than-life pills falling from the sky in slow motion, the commercial combines branding with Magritte's imagery.

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851)

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Brand: GEICO
Year: 2013

Taking us back to 1776, this commercial features Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's classic depiction of George Washington and men of the Continental Army and militia crossing the Delaware River on Christmas night. Their surprise attack and victory in Trenton, New Jersey, set the stage for victories to come (and a car insurance commercial).

Phil Hansen, Mona Greasa (2009)

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Brand: Arby's
Year: 2009

In this commercial hinges on Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, but it doesn't include the original. Artist Phil Hansen uses a different medium to recreate the 16th century masterpiece, which he calls Mona Greasa. Like the original painting, this version involves the use of oil, not oil paint, but hamburger grease. The commercial provides an artistic demonstration of the amount of grease that can be found in a regular burger, a burger from anywhere but Arby's, apparently.

Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait With Bandaged Ear (1889)

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Brand: Americans for the Arts
Year: 2008

This commercial and its product, Van Goghgurt, were created as part of Americans for the Arts' marketing campaign to equate the arts with a healthy diet. The other "arts-healthy" food products that were marketed in the campaign include Elizabeth Barrett Brownies, Raisin Brahms, and Tchaikovsky's Nut Crackers.

Andy Warhol, Coca-Cola (1962), Marilyn Monroe (1962), Mao (1973), Liz (1963-5), Elvis (1963), and Jackie (1964)

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Brand: Coca-Cola
Year: 1985

This Japanese Coca-Cola commercial broadcasted in 1985. It appropriates an image of Andy Warhol in addition to some of his most famous silkscreen paintings of celebrities and iconic figures. Warhol's Marilyn Monroe, Mao, Liz, Elvis, and Jackie are among the pieces that have been superimposed and re-contextualized in this commercial, where each is shown drinking a bottle of Coca-Cola.

The commercial perfectly captures Andy's words in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, where he wrote:

What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same thing as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa (1501-1517)

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Brand: GEICO
Year: 2013

Once again GEICO relies on a famous work of art for an advertisement, and once again Mona Lisa becomes the face of a brand. Instead of winking, this version of da Vinci's masterpiece can talk about car insurance.

Christian Marclay, Telephones (1995)

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Brand: Apple
Year: 2007

The commercial features numerous scenes from some of the most popular films across decades. The least recognizable and noticeable work of art that governs the commercial, however, is Christian Marclay's 1995 film in which he spliced together snippets of actors answering the phone from famous movies.

A year before the commercial was released, Apple approached the Paula Cooper Gallery, which represents Marclay's work in New York, about using Telephones in its then upcoming advertisement. Marclay refused out of concern that Apple's scale and visibility would make his video something that's recognized as "the Apple iPhone ad." Apple went ahead and used the concept, anyway.

Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1801)

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Brand: GEICO
Year: 2013

This commercial pokes fun at the great Napoleon I of France. It features the famous painting of Napoleon crossing the Alps, replacing its official title with "Short Man on a Horse." Talk about a Napoleon Complex. 

Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper (1494-1498)

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Brand: Doritos
Year: 2011

In this commercial, Jesus and his disciples sit down for The Last Supper, a meal that centers around Doritos. This is not the first time The Last Supper and Doritos have been put together. In a 2011 episode of his show, Colbert argued that Jesus could be a chip and quotes Mark 14:20: “It is one of the twelve, who dips with me in the bowl.” If, through transubstantiation, the Doritos chip becomes the body of Christ, the Jesus “snackrificed” Himself for our sins.

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa (1501-1517) and Vitruvian Man (1490) / Henry Raeburn, The Skating Minister (1790s) / Johannes Vermeer, Girl With a Pearl Earring (1665) / Georges Seurat, Bathers at Asnières (1884) / Edouard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) / James McNeill Whistler, Whistler's Mother (1871)

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Brand: Samsung
Year: 2010

Samsung went wild over art history with this commercial, which features not one famous work of art, but seven master paintings by highly acclaimed artists. The commercial demonstrates the meaning of the work of art in the age of three-dimensional reproduction. Imagine being able to see the curves on Mona Lisa's face or know what Seurat's Bathers in Asnières are really looking at.

Edvard Munch, The Scream (1895)

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Brand: Glade
Year: 1999

Have you ever wondered what scared the shit out of the character in Edvard Munch's The Scream? Glade answers the age-old question in this commercial for its Plug-Ins refill. He's freaking out because of your cigar smoke, and if you want him to sing and dance like he does in this commercial, maybe it's time to get yourself the Glade plug-in. Not that you would use it in a museum, which is most likely where you would be seeing The Scream.

Grant Wood, American Gothic (1930)

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Brand: General Mills
Year: 1966

General Mills' "New Country Corn Flakes" commercial was a hit when it first aired. Featuring Grant Wood's classic painting, American Gothic, this black-and-white commercial from the '60s has become a classic of its own. The commercial also uses the theme song from the 1960s TV show Green Acres, which is another cultural footprint of its time.

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