Subvertising: Difference between revisions

'''Subvertising''' (a [[portmanteau]] of ''[[subversion (political)|subvert]]'' and ''advertising'') is the practice of making spoofs or [[parody|parodies]] of [[corporation|corporate]] and [[politics|political]] [[advertising|advertisements]].<ref name="state">{{Cite news |first=Alexander |last=Barley |date=May 21, 2001 |title=Battle of the image |work=[[New Statesman]] |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/node/153475 |access-date=2010-12-09 |quote=Subvertising is an attempt to turn the iconography of the advertisers into a noose around their neck. If images can create a brand, they can also destroy one. A subvert is a satirical version or the defacing of an existing advert, a detournement, an inversion designed to make us forget consumerism and consider instead social or political issues.}}</ref> The cultural critic [[Mark Dery]] coined the term in 1991.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dekeyser |first=Thomas |date=2020-08-09 |title=Dismantling the advertising city: Subvertising and the urban commons to come |journal=Environment and Planning D: Society and Space |volume=39 |issue=2 |language=en |pages=309–327 |doi=10.1177/0263775820946755 |issn=0263-7758 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Subvertisements are anti-ads that deflect advertising's attempts to turn the people's attention in a given direction.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dery |first=Mark |url=https://www.markdery.com/books/culture-jamming-hacking-slashing-and-sniping-in-the-empire-of-signs-2/ |title=Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing, and Sniping in the Empire of Signs |publisher=Open Media |year=1993 |location=New York}}</ref> According to author [[Naomi Klein]], subvertising offers a way of speaking back to advertising, ‘forcing a dialogue where before there was only a declaration.’<ref>{{Cite news |last=Klein |first=Naomi |date=8 May 1997 |title=Subvertising: Culture jamming reemerges on the media landscape |work=The Village Voice |url=http://ecumedesjours.com/artjammer.com/jamming_article.html}}</ref> They may take the form of a new image or an alteration to an existing image or icon, often in a [[satire|satirical]] manner.<ref>{{Cite web |lastlast1=Bonner |firstfirst1=Matt |last2=Raoul |first2=Vyvian |date=2022-11-28 |title=Subvertising: Sharing a Different Set of Messages |url=https://commonslibrary.org/subvertising-sharing-a-different-set-of-messages/ |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref>

A subvertisement can also be referred to as a [[meme hack]] and can be a part of [[social hacking]], [[billboard hacking]] or [[culture jamming]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 4, 2009 |title=Clearing the Mindscape |work=[[Adbusters]] |url=http://www.adbusters.org/category/tags/subvertising |url-status=dead |access-date=2010-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927050110/http://www.adbusters.org/category/tags/subvertising |archive-date=September 27, 2011 |quote=So I think that, for me, "subvertising", or "culture jamming", as I call it, is the art of creating a new kind of cool.}}</ref> According to ''[[Adbusters]]'', a [[Canada|Canadian]] magazine and a proponent of counter-culture and subvertising, "A well-produced 'subvert' mimics the look and feel of the targeted ad, promoting the classic '[[double-take (comedy)|double-take]]' as viewers suddenly realize they have been duped. Subverts create [[cognitive dissonance]], with the apparent aim of cutting through the '[[:wikt:hype|hype]] and glitz of our mediated reality' to reveal a 'deeper truth within'.{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}}

In 1972, the logo of Richard Nixon's reelection campaign posters was subverted with two x's in Nixon's name (as in the [[Exxon]] logo) to suggest the corporate ownership of the Republican party.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=March 5, 1973 |title=Exxon Victorious |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903902,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205043902/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903902,00.html |archive-date=February 5, 2008 |quote=One sure sign that Exxon has arrived as a brand name is that it has become the butt of cartoonists' jokes. For example, a cartoon in [[Mad (magazine)|''Mad'' magazine]] shows a picture of the White House with a sign overhead emblazoned Nixxon. The caption: 'But it's still the same old gas'.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Sore-Loserman: From political parody to charity's windfall. CNN. 4 Dec. 2000 |url=http://archivesedition.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/12/04/stickers.election/ |access-date=2014-03-29 |publisher=Archives.cnn.com}}</ref>

On November 6, 2008, [[The Yes Men]] recruited thousands of social activists to hand out 100,000 copies of a spoof ''New York Times'' newspaper set six months in the future.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chan |first=Sewell |date=2008-11-12 |title=Liberal Pranksters Hand Out Times Spoof |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/pranksters-spoof-the-times/ |access-date=2024-01-17 |website=City Room |language=en}}</ref> The goal was to utilize a tangible and trusted medium, the ''New York Times'', to argue for a particular future.{{example, needed|date=Augustin 2019}}that case, one where the [[Iraq War]] had ended. Other groups involved with this project included [[Steve Lambert|Anti-Advertising Agency]], [[Code Pink]], [[United for Peace and Justice]], [[May First/People Link]], and [[Improv Everywhere]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}}

In 2017, Brandalism and other groups of subvertisers founded the collective Subvertisers International.<ref>{{Cite web |first=Kieron |last=Monks |title='Subvertising' hackers are using street ads to protest |url=https://www.cnn.com/style/article/subvertising-ads-posters-billboards/index.html |access-date=2020-08-15 |website=CNN |date=23 March 2018 |language=en}}</ref> Using billboard hacking and other forms of subvertising, they promote the idea that advertising creates unhealthy body images, impacts democracy negatively, and sustains a culture of [[consumerism]] that takes a heavy toll on the planet.

In 2022, billboards in London, Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield and, Brighton, and 11 other European cities, were hijacked to highlight the role of airline emissions in the [[Climate crisis]]. They highlighted the large [[carbon footprint]] of flying, that the majority of flights are taken by a tiny fraction of the total population, and that airlines have missed all but one of the industry’s self-imposed [[sustainability]] targets.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-09-22 |title=Activists subvert poster sites to shame aviation and ad industries |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/22/activists-subvert-poster-sites-aviation-ad-industries-airline-emissions-climate-crisis |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

*[[{{annotated link|Steve Lambert]]}}

*[[{{annotated link|Brandalism]]}}

*[[{{annotated link|Code Pink|CODEPINK]]}}

*[[{{annotated link|Criticism of advertising]]}}

*[[{{annotated link|Culture jamming]]}}

*[[{{annotated link|Iara Lee|Cultures of Resistance]]}}

*''[[{{annotated link|Czech Dream]]}}''

*[[{{annotated link|Darren Cullen (cartoonist)]]}}

*[[{{annotated link|Doppelgänger brand image]]}}

*[[{{annotated link|Hungarian Two Tailed Dog Party]]}}

*[[{{annotated link|Improv Everywhere]]}}

*[[{{annotated link|May First/People Link]]}}

*[[{{annotated link|Meme hack]]}}

*[[{{annotated link|United for Peace and Justice]]}}

*''[[{{annotated link|Wacky Packages]]}}'' (humor)