The ad I chose to focus on from the Adbuster’s spoof ads was the one titled “CK Chicken.” The ad shows packaged chicken meat, with the word “ChiCKen” written across the center label, and phrases such as “fresh young chicken,” “extra lean – 7% body fat,” “Great Legs Nice Breasts,” and “Grade A Design” written around it. This spoof ad is a direct criticism of companies such as Calvin Klein (whose logo is used for the “CK” in “chicken”) who use female models with so called “perfect” figures to sell their goods. This plays directly into the idea of commodity fetishism, from the chapter "Advertising, Consumer Culture, and Desire.” Women are objectified in many fashion ads, and made to be no more than objects of desire. Often, different areas of their bodies, such as legs and breasts, are also visually separated from the whole and used as a tool to sell. This makes their bodies into more of a valuable commodity than an actual human being. In addition, because the women used are portrayed as having perfect bodies, they become the standard that many others struggle to achieve, but cannot possibly ever reach. Their bodies become fetishized in this sense, and become objects that define beauty and sexuality.
The essential difference between the anti-ad and actual ad is obviously the fact that rather than a woman being used, the anti-ad uses meat. This is meant to bring attention to the fact that women’s bodies are treated like commodities, much in the same way that something like meat is. The anti-ad seeks to point out the irony that terms used to describe ideal chicken meat are often used to describe women of an impossible standard. It’s a shocking similarity.
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