Surrealism Sells

A movement built to attack bourgeois rationality ended up as the house style of advertising. The reason is simple: Surrealist tricks — impossible juxtapositions, dreamlike scenes, uncanny objects — are unusually good at stopping the eye and tying a strange feeling to a product. What was meant to unsettle the bourgeoisie turned out to be perfect for selling to them.

Dalí himself embraced commerce, designing the Chupa Chups logo, creating magazine covers for Vogue, and doing television commercials. Breton expelled him from the movement, calling him "Avida Dollars" (an anagram of his name).