Truth Vs. Advertising: The Banana Republic Architect Ads

The Banana Republic ad with the architects—it's everywhere! And it
raised some questions for us. So we asked an architect—we'll call him
Frankie Lloyd—who works at "a large firm downtown with an eccentric,
megalomaniac starchitect at the helm" how the ad stacked up to his
reality. The answers may surprise you!

Gawker: So have you seen those Banana Republic ads?

Frankie: No, I haven't.

Gawker: Okay, pick up a copy of any magazine. Well, any medium to highbrow magazine -- the New Yorker or New York mag will work well.

Frankie: Yeah, OK. I saw the one inside the cover of this week's New Yorker.

Wow, the colors of those shirts are very bright!



Gawker: So what is it like being surrounded by nubile 23 year olds in khaki coordinates at all times?



Frankie: I am not really sure, to be honest with you. I think I may be involved

in some different types of architecture than these people.



Gawker: What do you mean, it's not really like that?

Frankie: Well, firstly, these people look really
well-rested and almost obscenely casual. If this were a real meeting,
the model on the table would have some stray marks on it. More likely,
it would be shattered in a million pieces on the floor.

Also, in my experience no architects dress like that - the
Liebeskind eyeglasses and black turtleneck/blazer, German expressionist
style is still the bottom line at most nyc offices. Most people are
executing variations on this basic Sprockets-y theme.



Gawker: Well, you guys do spend a lot of time in
the airy conference room overlooking the Hudson, staring at little
wooden dollhouses and making flirty-eyes at each other, right?



Frankie: I think this is a myth more dangerous
than the "Michael Brady is an architect" myth. The Brady Bunch story is
totally feasible if you consider that he was an architect and he got
divorced, most likely because he worked too much and cheated on his
wife with someone from the office. That part is probably true, but that
is where the Brady resemblance to reality ends. Honestly, there is just
no way he is at home doing sketches and having Peter and Cindy barge in
with their completely pedestrian nonsense and still be able to get any
real building done.

Gawker: Which of the ladies in this ad most resembles a lady from your office?



Frankie: There was only one woman with four or five guys in the ad that I was

looking at in the New Yorker. She did not seem to reflect the
disproportionately large number of Asian women in the field, so on this
basis alone I won't take a stab at this resemblance question.

That having been said, there is a guy with curly hair sitting at the
table who looks like a lighting designer I have worked with. Those guys
are total lightweights.

Gawker: Do people wear trench coats indoors a lot at your office?



Frankie: People do tend to wear trench coats a lot. I think architects probably

are really into outerwear. In our office at least, for most of the year
they blast the air conditioning to keep us awake all day and maintain
design productivity. I don't know if this is like an industry-wide
practice, but it is very effective.

Gawker: How would you describe your cheekbones, compared to those of the

architects in this advertisement?

Frankie: Yeah, I mean, compared to these people my cheekbones are so highly

undistinguished. I have nothing more to say on this question.

Gawker: How often do ladies put their giant hobo bags on the conference table during a meeting? Do you think that's appropriate?



Frankie: It is somewhat common. One woman in the
office rocks one of these when she goes to the construction site. She's
kind of homely, but I think the bag helps the general look and it gets
her the whistles and catcalls she so desperately craves from
construction workers.



Gawker: Do you think these ads will inspire a lot of youngsters to become architects when they grow up?



Frankie: If I were a high schooler with
architectural aspirations seeing this, it would probably be too
seductive to resist. Five years in a design program, however, at a
sufficiently respectable design school will bleed most of the color out
of this person's palette and leave them crushed and vulnerable enough
to fully engage the profession.