Monday Morning Overthinking

As artists we all hope one day that our art will be discovered and showcased and that it will move and inspire people. I think that is one of the reasons we produce art beyond utility. A bit of our soul goes into it and that is disseminated somewhere else in the universe.

I was hooked into this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ-ly-H-Mes
and watched mesmerised and delighted as the process unfolded. It was extraordinary. I assume the artists were well remunerated for their astounding efforts and judging by the number of hits on youtube for this, plenty of publicity was generated for a product.
The video is for a product that was released a year ago and which as far as I know has had its fifteen minutes of fame.
I pondered this whole art subsumed by commercialism question after watching this and wondered if it was just a prostitution of talent and have made some observations.



The artwork could probably not have existed without the patronage of the advertising company/product agent.
The artwork persists after the superseded product has died a natural death.
The artist may have believed in the product.
The artist may regret the proliferation of such high turnover in products of this nature.
The art work may generate other artistic projects that may be better.
The artwork has been designed to persist and be archived in the digital age long after its ephemeral life is over.
How much cheaper would products be if these vast amounts of promotional money were not incorporated into their design?
Does good art work give credibility to a product?
As artists and designers do we stand a chance of having our products persist in a positive way in the universe without the backing of wealthy patrons?
All my questions are filtered through the lens of my beliefs, and Web Surfin'Sam probably sucks it up and squirts it back out into the ether after saying "cool" or "awesome" and that's the end of that.

Sometimes you just have to stop thinking and get back to doing what you can't help!