Adbusters

when looking at advertising and in particular its links with consumerism, you cant help but look at the parodies found on adbusters.org, a non-profit, anti-consumerist organisation, who have described themselves as "a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age."
full of interesting articles on anti-consumerism, stopping global warming, making the world a better place and other such happy things. it contains many 'spoof ads' also known as 'subvertisements' which are a direct parody of real adverts.
although they are not adverts in a conventional sense, they can be seen as commenting on the ideologies that these adverts support or portray.
The following is an advert for Absolut Vodka, and one its adbusters counterparts


pretty cool =]
clicky for more subvertisements.
the subvertisement suggests many things; firstly it is saying VODKA MAKES YOU IMPOTENT. i think we all managed to see that. what it is also pointing out is that advertising does not tell you the whole story. in fact, advertising may not necassarily tell you any of the story. advertising tells you 'BUY THIS PRODUCT' and it does so to earn money. advertising does not care if you turn impotent because of something it told you to do. it brings to light the question
is advertising moral?
to which an obvious answer in this case, and in many cases that im sure you can think of, the answer will be no.
this brings to light another question;
CAN advertising be moral?
hmmm....

x sylvia