Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the United Kingdom and the United States during the mid-to-late-1950s. The movement presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular and mass cultures, such as advertising, comic books, and mundane mass-produced objects. One of its aims is to use images of popular (as opposed to elitist) culture in art, emphasizing the banal or kitschy elements of any culture, most often through the use of irony.