Advertastic

In this activity, students chose one of the spoof ads that were available on the adbusters site and analyzed them according to what they had learnt. It was an interesting exercise of reflection on the point of advertising and the real truth behind most of these ads.

You can see some examples above:

REALITY for men ad: you can see a fat and hairy man. This spoof ad wants to show that real men are not the ones in Calvin Klein’s boxers ads. They have their flaws and nobody is as perfect as they want us to believe with ads. The advertiser plays with the pun of reality to say reality of any other man compared to CK ads, because on them, you can only see  handsome boys with perfect bodies and it is difficult to find that perfection in real life.

Adriana Moya

At first, I can see an obsessed man. It means that in Calvin Klein ads a man always appears  with an extraordinary muscle tone, but in this ad, the man is the same but he’s obsessed with his penis. This obsession is a pun of this spoof ad which plays with the ‘’’obsession’’ original slogan of Calvin Klein brand, because the obsession which appears in this ad is different: he does not create an obsession on others. Nevertheless, he’s obsessed with his own image and condition.  Finally, the point or objective of the advertiser is to parody the original ad with the pun which I have explained before.

Carlos Clemente

In this spoof ad we can see a rope wich is meant to be used to hang someone. That could mean that someone is going to suicide. In my opinion, the real meaning of this is that drinking alchohol, like drinking abosolute vodka, sometimes takes people to depressions and sometimes to suicides.The advertiser wants to show us that drinking too much alcohol is not healthy for us.The pun is that the advertiser uses the name of the brand ” Absolut Vodka” to transform it into “Absolute hangover”, which is thereal state to which drinking too much alcogol takes you.

Albert Bach

In the ad, there are a few people smoking out of an office. It means that people now, with the new laws, have to go smoking outdoors and freeze (if iit s winter). The point of the ad is that the situation for smokers is very different from what it used to be, when smokers were free to smoke everywhere. The pun is in the Marlboro country’s sentence, because it means that nowadays, the country of smokers is like this Marlboro country: stinky,dirty,cold and uncomfortable.

Laura Toledo

In the ad, we can see a group of chairs that have been put together with the shape of a bottle. The bottle shape and the slogan (ABSOLUT AA) remind the audience to alcoholic anonymous. The point of the advertiser is that consumers know the effects of alcohol on their health and life. The pun “absolute aa”, tries to give the message that if you drink, you can end up in AA meetings because you’ll be an alcoholic.

Miguel Kummetz

We can see an operation room, where there’s a man stretched. We can see a screen where there’s the hearth rate, but instead of a regular line, we see the logo of Mc Donald’s. It means that if you eat a lot of hamburgers of Mc Donald’s, you can have a heart attack and end up in hospital. The advertiser tries to warn us that too much fast food is bad for your health for the extra amount of fat and calories that gives you. After the line shapes up into an “M” like the logo of the chain of restaurants, there’s no life.

Xavi Osorio