This advertisement is for Kemper Funds a U.S. based investment firm. This ad was found in the October 7, 1996 issue of Business Week magazine. Business Week is a weekly publication containing basic information about the happenings in corporations around the world and is read by those who have the need or desire to be up to date with the business world. The ad features two illustrations, one resembles a prehistoric cave painting, the other is an Egyptian tomb decoration.

The cave painting is one found at Cingle de la Mola, Remiga, Castellón, Spain. It was done during the Mesolithic period, between 5000 and 2000 BC. A notable feature of this painting is the out stretched legs of the men, in a running position. This was an early method of adding movement in a painting which has no depth nor true realism. Many of the paintings in this area of Spain are of violent nature, featuring hunting or fighting. These could be a method of keeping a history, or it could represent a hopeful prediction.

The Egyptian picture in the ad is not one painting but actually a composition of two. The upper portion is from the Tomb of Menna located in Thebes. The lower is also from Thebes in the Tomb of Sennedjem. Both works are done in painted relief. The Tomb of Menna was done during Dynasty XVIII (1552-1295 BC) at the start of New Kingdom. Egypt was booming, having expanded its area of control greatly, the tomb art shows this in its richness. Scenes of plentiful harvests give the viewer a feeling for the success of the country. This theme is also shown in the work from the Tomb of Sennedjem, completed in either Dynasty XIX or XX (1294-1069 BC). Both examples come from Thebes which was established as the capital of the New Kingdom and was located on the west side of the Nile. Thebes was also home to the temples of Luxor and Karnak, both of which are major sites of Egyptian history. This alone makes it clear that both Menna and Sennedjem were important figures of their time.

The advertisement uses these two images to try to convince readers of Business Week to invest in Kemper Funds. The first scene shows five hunters with weapons drawn attacking a huge bear-like creature. The second is a harvesting scene showing the cutting, gathering, and transporting of grain. The ad states that these two pictures are metaphors for the two basic types of investors. One is in constant struggle against, and in fear of, forces greater than themselves (the bear). The other has mastered the art of production and is now running a smooth form of collection. The cultures represented by these two pictures are very different. The technology and survival techniques were far more advanced in Ancient Egypt. The Mesolithic tribes were, for the most part, nomadic following the available resources. The Egyptians, however, had settled into the idea of cities, they took the time to develop irrigation for their crops and focused on agriculture.

The use of these two (or three) images is interesting because the origin of each of these has a much greater significance than does the advertisement. Although the true meaning of the cave paintings is unknown, many speculate that scenes, such as this one, that feature hunters and their prey were used as a type of hunting magic. This idea was highly popularized in the study of the caves of Lascaux which featured animals with red "blood" spots and spears sticking into them. The idea behind hunting magic is that by showing the hunters successful on the cave walls it would be more likely that they would be as they actually went out. The Egyptian picture comes from two tombs in Thebes. The Dynastic Egyptians went to great lengths to decorate their tombs and did so for a number of reasons. The illustrations often showed a representation of the deceased doing something he/she enjoyed or it showed them in a position of honor (for example the "Hippopotamus Hunt" from the Tomb of Ti) . The Egyptians also believed that the soul went though a number of journeys after death. The paintings would sometimes serve as a sort of guide for the soul working along side a book of the dead. Also considered is that the soul needed sustenance in its journey, the grain being harvested could supply this. The one accurate parallel that can be drawn between these three examples (advertisement, cave painting, and tomb art) is that all three show a profit of some sort. In the cave art the benefit is protection and food, in the Egyptian, food and success of productions, and in the Kemper Funds advertisement, pure monetary profit that can buy food and protection.

The casual viewer of this advertisement needs not know any extra information about these pieces of art to get the most out of this advertisement. The text of the ad basically gives any information needed by stating the idea that the Egyptians were more advanced because they had come closer to conquering their environment. All that is required of the observer is that they believe that the Ancient Egyptian civilization was more advanced than the civilization represented by the cave paintings. This is likely the reason the Kemper Funds corporation chose these two civilizations, most people with even the most basic historical knowledge understand that the Egyptians came after the prehistoric cave painters and therefore were more advanced. In addition few other civilizations are as easily identified by one piece of art as are these two. In conjunction with this knowing the background information behind the original pieces serves no dramatic purpose in the comprehension of the ad. The only change one experiences when viewing the advertisement with extra knowledge is the rousing sense of irony that fine pieces of art that had great significance and meaning to their original owners and creators is now used flippantly as a tool to sell goods.