Adbusters and the Politics of Looking

In the ad-buster Nike ad, an image is shown of a woman running barefoot over rocks covered by copy that describes the life threatening circumstances of working in sweatshops.

What I find most interesting about this ad is its initially disguised, yet extremely outspoken message to the viewer. As stated early on in the chapter "Advertising, Consumer Culture and Desire", advertisers have learned that most consumers of visual culture move on from ads when they lack initial draw. At first glance, this Nike spoof ad seems fairly typical for that brand: it features a person running with certain motivational words in bold and in the color red. However, read closer and you find that those "motivational" phrases change drastically in context with the rest of the text. For example, at first glance you read the bright, bold text that says "It's so cool to wear Nike"; however, after closer observation of the smaller text preceding it, it reads "so think globally before you decide". This ad plays off of a couple of key points listed in this chapter. The first being the trend of ignorance among consumers who easily ignore information that isn't initially enticing or different, and the second being the consumer's fetishism of products without concern for where and how they originated. This ad functions so as to read one way to the less attentive viewer, and another to the more interested one. As the chapter goes on to describe, even after consumers feel a sense of guilt for supporting a corrupt system of production that led to their purchase, they find few ways to change it so they keep consuming. What this ad is projecting is both the unfair labor practices of Nike in underdeveloped and "hidden" countries, as well as the lack of attention paid to advertising subtexts by visual consumers.