Thursday, April 22, 2010

Advertising consumer cultures desire

In Absolut hangover the ad is trying to sell the effect of alcohol on people the next day.

The difference between an ad-buster ad and a real ad is the glamorization of the product. While an ad is used to sell a product by showing it's coolness. An Ad-buster reveals to the consumer a direct result of using the product. This ad-buster plays on the absolut bottle silhouette, the usual ad for the product and satirizes it with a noose which relates to the negative effects of alcohol the next day, a hangover.

2 comments:

  1. I have always found it interesting that ads seem to polarize things. It is quite possible to enjoy absolute without getting a hangover, and then its also quite possible to drink to much and accidentally get in an accident, and all the areas of grey in between. But to distinguish themselves from all the other ads, ads - even the anti ads - must be an extreme.

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  2. In an odd sort of way an ad showing that gray area might actually be pretty different from standard ads, spoof or real. As you hinted, no ad simply shows some guy who's a little buzzed sitting there watching TV, even though this is probably the most common real world situation. I suppose it all comes down to the fact that such an ad wouldn't really do much either for or against the product, so there's no utility in it for the ad company or the adbuster. More directly, I don't think the ads show the extremes to differentiate themselves from other ads; it's just that there's really no message to be sent by showing the in between areas.

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