playstation ad 1999. mental wealth - playstation ad 1999. mental wealth

What this video is

Mental Wealth emerged at the peak of Sony PlayStation's deliberately alienating, anti-conventional European marketing campaign (c.1997–2001), which rejected product demonstration in favour of surrealist, identity-provoking imagery. Directed by Chris Cunningham — already synonymous with the Warp Records / IDM visual universe — the ad translated the uncanny body-horror aesthetics of his music video work into…

Why it matters

A landmark in the art-directed advertising genre, Mental Wealth collapsed the boundary between experimental music video and commercial television advertising. It established a template for anti-advertising within gaming culture, legitimised auteur directors (Cunningham, later David Lynch) as brand…

The director

English film director, video artist, and creature-effects designer born in Reading, Berkshire, 1970. Early career spanned comic book art, prosthetic makeup, and concept illustration for films including Alien3 and Judge Dredd. Headhunted by Stanley Kubrick to…