ADBUSTERS

https://www.adbusters.org/gallery/spoofads

Needing inspiration for my Music Is Free project and knowing I was working with the idea of 'taking down the music industry', I had a look into the work of adbusters.org. This organisation mocks corporations and products by producing funny and truthful adverts about them. For example, they produced a set of posters about Absolut vodka, imitating the brand styling and the advertising style. Instead of the typical vodka adverts showing people having a good time with alcohol and everything being fine, the adbuster campaign talked about the opposite effects of alcohol such as alcohol related deaths, impotence, addiction etc. Although these are serious issues, adbusters create their work in a light hearted and humerous way intending to make the companies seem stupid rather than just talking about serious issues. Other adverts they produced include a set of perfume and aftershave posters, one showing a fat, hairy man instead of models that show you 'the way you should look'.

Adbusters is about taking down the big companies and ridiculing them. They use corporate brands and styles, like the ones we see every day in magazines and on television, and interfere with them so they work against the companies. 

If I was studying for a graphic design degree I would probably be interested in the compostion and the overall look of the adbusters camplaigns but as an illustrator I am purely blogging about adbusters because it has given me ideas on how to use existing work against the company it is made to promote. The work they produce is clever and because they use material and imagery that people are already familiar with, it is easier for a wider audience to relate to the messages they are sending out.