10ad.org features two Absolut Vodka ads created by the Media Foundation, a Canadian Political group that publishes the magazine Adbusters.
Read up on the Media Foundation and Adbusters and let me know what you think their take on advertising is in relationship to what we have discussed thus far this semester (use the comments for your findings). You may also find some good resources for your research.
Finally, Krysta found a great video by Dove, you may want to take a look at it, if you haven’t already: Campaign for Real Beauty (this videos works quite well with many of the ideas we have been exploring, thanks Krysta!)
The Media Foundation and Adbusters seem to be attacking the media and advertising from a different direction than we are. They see problems with corporations and how they handle certain things, not so much the way in which women and men are protrayed in the media. They “want folks to get mad” and get out and do something about the problems in the world. Our approach has been more focused on learning about how times have changed and how companies use advertising in order get people to buy their product. The Media Foundation touches on this through their attempts to defuse corporate disinformation, because in a sense the ads they put out do not inform the people properly. But I feel that Adbusters/Media Foundation is more focused on the scandal area.
The Adbusters and the similar foundations connected to it are really undermining the commercials that we see every day and I think that Bordo and other likeminded writers would applaude their efforts to make us think for ourselves rather than being sucked in to the commercialism. I think that the vodka adbuster makes us really think about the consequences of drinking vodka-the hangover, etc. They are exposing all the things that the ads want us to push from our minds when we view the product. The Dove ad was especially interesting because it really reinforced what we have been dicussing for the last couple weeks of class. The ads are selling us a product by luring us with bait that is an illusion. A model is shown to us but her photo has enough creative lighting and computer graphics to completely disguise her true looks. It was so fascinating to actually watch the process of the model being tranformed.
The Media Foundation, through use of their “Adbusters” is similar to other company’s methods of advertising, in that they portray products in humorous ways which get across their messages. The difference between what we’ve researched thus far and Adbusters, thought, is the fact that Adbusters functions solely to bring up issues in a humorous way, rather than solely trying to get people to buy products. It’s more of a biased information technique than a marketing device, it seems.
The Media Foundation uses “Adbusters” to get across a strong point about advertising: it can be extremely ridiculous. They do it in a humorous way, and I think it is a great way to make people aware of the marketing techniques used by so many companies in order to simply sell a product. I like the way it exposes the actual advertising technique as opposed to the need to sell a product.
The Media Foundation is an ecological magazine that uses a creative and humorous approach to discuss the modern day industries. They want people to discover and get mad about “corporate disinformation, injustices in the global economy, and any industry that pollutes our physical or mental commons.” Just like we have been discussing throughout class, the Media Foundation wants us not to accept all facts presented to us and realize the craziness that the media offers to us. It shows readers to not follow along with what commercials and advertising shows everyone to be doing and buying, but to think for oneself. The dove ad also is a unique approach to see what really is behind the advertising force. It demonstrates how most advertising is an intricate work process and many models have fake attributes and should not be considered “perfect”.