Advertising Analysis Blog Post

We live in a media inundated culture. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “The average American is exposed to about 3000 advertising messages a

day, and globally corporations spend over $620 billion each year to

make their products seem desirable and to get us to buy them.” The media participates within governing and dominant systems by constructing and cultivating our wants and desires, often by conflating them with needs.

To be media savvy and a critical consumer, then, becomes an act of resistance and crucial to intentionally participating in culture. Remember we can’t escape the system or unplug from the world but we can decide how we participate.

For our advertising assignment, we are going to use advertising for unintended purposes. In fact, we are going to do what Danielle did and create feminist flashcards:

That were then echoed by these students:

Remake media in your image!

So, here are the rules for the assignment:

1.     Decide on a media image to remake. The image should include someone/something from advertising or Hollywood that is easily recognizable as part of mainstream media representations of the body (think beauty ideal).

2.     Remake the image. You may alter the intent of the actual image, change color and style, draw on it and upload it. Be creative. Or, you can leave the actual image alone and skip to step three.

3.     Create text to display on the image that addresses a macro level concern broached in the WST text relating to the body or health. It should include “Hey” somebody, like our examples. The idea is to be ironic, funny.

4.     Post your remake and the original image to your blog. Include a link (either by clicking on the image or as an actual link by text) to the original citing source. Link to any related news stories, essays, etc. that provide context.

5.     Post a 300 word artist’s statement explaining your decisions in remaking the image, justifying your choices, and making an macro level argument about women’s bodies (that means if you ad is targeted to men or some other population you need to spell out what this remake means for our understanding of women). Make sure to include an analysis (by analysis I mean you break it down: how do the colors, clothes, position of objects or people create the tone; is there a difference in the implicit and explicit meaning; what is the ad selling, how?) or the original ad and use our course text to back up your argument.

6.     Post your works cited, including the original picture.

Here is mine:

Here is thr rubric for the assignment: