Advertising, Consumer Cultures, and Desire

The McDonald MacAttack adbuster advertisement caught my eye as one of the more visceral images that the Spoof Ads website offered. The anti-advertisement is selling consumer health knowledge by simply juxtaposing a hospital surgery patient with a flat lining ECG in the shape of the infamous McDonalds arch. The advertisement does not explicitly say that the person under the scalpel has overindulged in McDonald's high fat food, but the viewer makes the association between cause and effect automatically. Taking a longer look, we can see he the cold blue and white color hues drastically contrast with the warm red and gold McDonalds arc. The falling red graph line on the chart by the foot of the table is a nice touch. This anti-advertisement behaves or rather we respond to this image because it taps into humans natural tendency to create meaning from symbols or images. These conditioned responses resonates with viewers in the same way bystanders cringe at the site of a automobile accident; horror, fear, and disgust.

The most significant difference between this anti-advertisement and an actual McDonald's "I'm Loving It" is the consumerism drive for consumption. The reading Advertising, Consumer Cultures, and Desire says, "Capitalism as a system depends on production and consumption of large amount of goods well beyond those that are necessary for daily living." (pg 266) Catchy advertisements show us that McDonalds has embraced the Capitalistic desire to make profit at whomevers cost. Overindulgence in cheap food containing saturated fats leads to consumers who are hooked by an insatiable hunger to eat more than what is necessary. The former "Super Sized" value meals offered more food to their customers at a discounted price. Unfortunately, the extra food can lead to higher obesity rates and other health problems. The anti-advertisement on the other hand, is not driven by a profit motive. Instead, it sells it's knowledge to viewers piecemeal.

I do understand that McDonalds does not intent to send all of their customers to the ER with clogged arteries; in fact, they would love to have healthy customers who will constantly purchase Big Macs for the rest of their long, happy lives. So it would not be fair to accuse McDonalds of intentionally hurting their customers is it a legally viable to prosecute a company for their customer's decisions and preferences.