As discussed in the article, “Advertising, Consumer Culture, and Desire” the difference between anti-ads and real ads is the concept of reality. Real ads aim to create a vision of life that is ideal, something that everyone wants. These ads create need in people for things they never knew they needed before. However Anti-ads work to do the opposite job. Anti-ads aim to create the sad reality of advertising. These ads uncover the falsities used in advertising to sell products that are not as glamorous as advertisements make them appear.
A set of ads that particularly caught my attention from the Ad-Busters reading were the Absolute Vodka ads. These ads are particularly recognizable in true form or anti-ad ad-busting form, and that makes these anti-ads that much more powerful. The ad that read “Absolute AA” was particularly striking to me. Alcohol use is so glamorized in all it’s advertisements, but what most people don’t think about is the negative effect alcohol is having on so many lives today. Not only are these ads selling to adults, but teenagers see these ads and how cool they are and in return they are sold on the idea that Alcohol is the cool thing to do.
However in our society AA is something that is highly stigmatized. People don’t like to think about the ugly truth behind alcoholism, so the AA meeting style arrangement of chairs in the shape of the vodka bottle has a really jarring effect. With that in mind it is easy to see how easily we can be manipulated by ads whether they are being produced by advertising agencies trying to sell a product, or ad-busting groups trying to sell an idea or message.
I totally agree with your analysis of the vodka ads. The one I think that I liked the most was the one that said "Absolute Impotence" because that is something that you would never think about in terms of the effects of alcohol. The way that they made the bottle limp was pretty striking, I thought, because of the obvious message that alcohol abuse can cause impotence but it also critiques the impotence of the advertising for the real thing in terms of how much the ads glamorize the lifestyle that kills you, not a lifestyle that makes you cool.
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