Post #1: Society & the Media

It seems as almost anywhere we go, we are exposed to advertisements. Whether you're reading some newspapers, at home watching t.v, in the car on your way to school or work listening to the radio, or just walking down the street; you will most likely see an ad. They are everywhere, and they influence most of our decisions and behaviors without us even noticing. These advertisements are used to encourage or persuade a large audience to do something in different ways. The following advertisements do just that.

Absolute On Ice:
I think the message of this ad is presented very effectively with only an image and a few words. The ad shows the foot of a dead body with a tag saying "DOA" meaning dead on arrival. The foot and the blanket covering the body is cleverly arranged to look  like ice/ an iceberg, which is related to the Vodka brand, Absolut. The correlation between the ad and the brand of vodka is then easy to see and understand. They are trying to show how dangerous and deadly alcohol can be if consumed irresponsibly.

Utter Fool:
This ad pokes fun at the cigarette brand Kool, while at the same time delivers an important message.The ad says "utter fool" which describes the man on the right who is smoking. As you probably already know, smoking can cause many health issues. The main reason why people get into smoking is because they see other people doing it. This is very common because it seems the trend today is following the crowd. I think what adbusters is trying to say is how foolish it is to believe that smoking makes you "cool".

 I think this ad isn't as effective as it can be and can be taken in different ways. The people who are against smoking will remain against smoking, and the people who are already smokers will just forget about the ad, because once you get addicted to cigarettes, it's hard to quit. As for children and teens, they will still be confused what to believe because they are constantly faced with peer pressure and the pressure to be cool/ popular.

I Want You...:
The third ad replaces the famous Uncle Sam with a similar looking man who appears to be Santa Claus, but this isn't the same Santa Claus you see in the movies and in commercials. He is saying " I want you to spend a lot to prove you love your family". I think this ad isn't supposed to be taken literally, it's supposed to show that you don't have to spend money on unnecessary things to prove your love for your friends and family. This ad is both effective and not effective. Effective because it uses the famous Uncle Sam that many people will recognize, but not effective because it will confuse some people to think that they actually do have to buy more to prove their love for others.

After researching more work from Adbusters, i have come to the conclusion that they very effectively and creatively reach large audiences about the many problems in our world, and helps us realize how the media around us is affecting us in negative ways.



Examples of other ads urging people to stop doing something: