Post-modern headline goes here.

  By definition, anything post-modern summons up a modern movement or style that it intends to make "post." If, say, the original modern movement is about design and impressionism, the post-modern version would be about collage and consumerism. If we're talking about, say, family life, we could kitsch up "Leave It To Beaver" to display ridiculous dysfunction, version 2012. There's the "modern" part and the "post" part; the subject (family) and the technique (kitsch). Obviously, style has a lot of sway here. Nevertheless, going from a still-life of Picasso's guitar to Warhol's soup can is fun and clever in its criticism of modern life.

  Well, I know that there's an increasing amount of kitsch, absurdism or whatever you want to call it, and it's supposed to be cool and sooo Brooklyn, but I'm bored with it. Juniors want to do Skitttles for American Express, except there's no point. It's just style. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's no such thing as originality, so why try to be original when we can be silly, ironical and gestural for the sake of it – I get it. You give up and...'Whatever.'

  But I recently saw a campaign from Sao Paulo for Mitsubishi that alluded to something modern without crossing the line into kitsch.

  When I turned page 31 of my Archive Magazine and saw this ad, I was at first jarred by its datedness – like, 'Was this an old issue?' It reminded me of an old BMW or Volvo ad, just slightly off and dare I say, subtle. The headline read, "Unfortunately, over the years the landscape has weathered more than the car." It's referring to the advertising landscape, but it's also referring to the automobile landscape. The art direction isn't so campy that I remain grounded to the literal; it becomes a metaphor for how other cars are stuck in the past.

  The ad won't win at Cannes or anything, it's not that good, but I found it effective and refreshing to see some restraint from kitschiness. In the wrong hands, style could have easily distracted from the substance and the benefits. In the right hands, Mitsubishi got the balance right, a little bit of craftsmanship enabling a smidgen of sincerity to come through.

  I guess I'm so entrenched in the cynicism of the day that it felt ironic to play off the current trend. I was surprised. Maybe this is post post modernism. Whatever.