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

shockvertising

public health warnings and charity adverts are becoming increasingly graphic, using shock tactics and attention-grabbing images or taglines to get their message across.
THIS is the link to an article about new anti binge-drinking campaigns launched by the home office, which are to be shown in the evenings to capture their target audience.

THIS ARTICLE, although slightly older, talks about 'shockvertising', focusing on graphic, hard-hitting ads such as the barnados add showing a baby heroin addict.

x sylvia

Critical Research

ok, its been AAAAAGES since i last posted lol

for my critical research i have chosen advertising as my topic. originally i planned to focus on how advertising in the media, focusing on the fashion industry, affects women's body image, but now, after reading an interesting article which sparked my imagination, im thinking of focusing on the censoring of advertising -
> why certain things are censored where others arent,
> how far advertisers can go in order to promote whatever they are promoting without crossing the line,
> how advertisers use shock tactics to appeal to their audience,
> whether censoring and restrictions on content hinder the creativity of people who create adverts or encourage it
> how as an audience the public has developed over the years - things acceptable in advertising now would have caused outrage 30 years ago

this is only an initial idea and is subject to change over the next week or so, depending on what my initial research tells me.

x Sylvia

social networking gets creepy

paving the way for internet stalkers is new functions on social networking websites allowing a users position to be tracked by satellite.
[full story]

thats just too far in my opinion.

- sylvia

facebook search for criminals

law enforcement; another example of social networking, an important part of web 2.0 being put to use beyond its original intentional use [click for full article]

yeah, web 2.0 is taking over...

- sylvia

libaries join web 2.0

an article on the guardian website regarding web 2.0 technology talks about how the ideas behind social networking are spreading to other areas in order to make information more accessible to people.

By embracing the interactive, user-generated world of web 2.0, libraries can ensure they keep pace with bold new ways of learning

click for full article

x sylviaaa

Web 2.0

as defined in wikipedia;
Web 2.0 is a trend in World Wide Web technology, and web design, a second generation of web-based communities and hosted services such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies, which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing among users.
basically, web 2.0 is how the internet is developing, to accommodate more user-generated content. social networking sites, where a user can edit their profile to represent themselves, whilst interacting with others, such as myspace, is a prime example of web 2.0 technology.
although web 2.0, a term coined by O'Reilly media, is not so much a technology as an idea behind the technology, it is a rapidly expanding aspect of the internet.

more to come =]

x sylvia