Marilyn Monroe's Hair and "Falsies" auctioned;Marketers use art to distract us from ad

Marilyn Monroe died 53 years ago August 5, but die-hard fans can still own a piece of the starlet thanks to Allan Abbott, an author and former mortician who is auctioning off the screen siren's hair and breast enhancers for a cool $50,000.

Abbott has bypassed the traditional auction house route—though it remains unclear whether or not traditional routes are available to him—and is instead opting to set up his own website specifically for the sale: marilynfalsies.com.

To make the story even creepier, Page Six reports that Abbott was an employee at the funeral home where Monroe's body was embalmed, and he obtained Monroe's hair and breast enhancers after rummaging through the trash while on the job."After everyone had left the room," he says on his website, "I retrieved the items from the waste bin."

"Because of severe swelling in her neck, the embalmer decided to perform a type of surgery on the back of her neck to decrease this swelling. It was necessary for him to remove some hair above her neck."
Marilyn_Monroe_&_Marlene_Dietrich

Photo: Wikipedia Commons.

Why, you might be wondering, did a star as famously buxom as Monroe need breast enhancers in the first place? Abbott has an answer to that, as well.

"I question the makeup man, Alan Snider, about the falsies," he stated on his website, "and he told me that she always wore them between her bra and sweater to make it appear as if she was braless, which she felt gave her that provocative look she was trying to obtain."

"I waited till now due to the sign from her crypt selling for 224k or so in June," Abbott told artnet News in an email. "Not in the least creepy—a part of history."
Photo: Courtesy Andrew Weiss and Pop International Galleries.

Photo: Courtesy Andrew Weiss and Pop International Galleries.

Abbott's online auction begins today, with bids starting at $50,000, and will end on August 19. According to the website, anyone wishing to "inspect" the falsies and hair can do so within 48 hours notice up until August 17.

If you're looking for a less cryptic and disturbing way to remember the blonde bombshell than purchasing locks of her hair, Time has a series of gorgeous photographs from her life and career.

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Marshall McLuhan famously said, "Advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century." But in the 21st century, art is becoming an increasingly popular form of advertising.

In 1962, Andy Warhol took a Campbell's soup can and turned it into art. Two decades later, Absolut commissioned Warhol to create a portrait of its vodka bottle.
The resulting ad got so much attention, Absolut commissioned hundreds of other artists to produce ads. Then, as promoted in this 2014 ad, Absolut took Warhol's painting and turned it into a real vodka bottle, with what appeared to be a hand-painted label.

So what was originally "art imitating ad" eventually morphed into "ad imitating art."

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There's a reason that this 2015 ad for the Jeep Renegade looks like a music video — because it is. Fiat Chrysler commissioned the Brooklyn-based band X Ambassadors to create a song about Renegades.

The band delivered a song with the word in its title and lyrics, and the music video — which was edited down to a TV commercial — includes lots of lingering shots of the new SUV.

It's clear why marketers like to use art in ads. Pop music and pop art are so popular, there's a very good chance the resulting advertising will be popular too.

Here's an example of art transformed into ad from a Canadian agency.

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Marketers have even waxed poetic about chicken.

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By infusing ads with the work of poets, painters or musicians, marketers hope to elevate the image of a brand and attract sophisticated, educated, stylish consumers.

As car maker Lincoln continues to reinvent itself from old and stodgy to youthful and inspired, art is playing a major role. The brand's website features videos with various artists — like painter Tim Bavington — talking about what inspires them.

Color Chords with Tim Bavington from The Lincoln Motor Company on Vimeo.

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While integrating art into ads can benefit individual brands, the big payoff is for the advertising industry as a whole.

If marketers can smudge the line between ads and art, consumers will increasingly see advertising as an art form and welcome it, rather than try to block it out.