Adbusters Article - 'Save the Planet Kill Yourself'

Adbusters Article - 'Save the Planet Kill Yourself'

• The issue being represented in the article is how the environment is being affected by the actions of humans for example, the article mentions about the production of plastic, food and drink, gadgets and clothes, 'This plastic comes from petroleum by-products like HGL and may be synthesised from crude oil in other parts of the world', the article tells the audience what is in everyday products in supermarkets and also how it is made, 'all the child labour and poverty labour that went into your clothes you are wearing'. The article uses direct address, to directly speak to the reader about these issues.

• The representations that are used to present ideologies to position the audience is the idea that the article is directly about them, and narrating their lives, it assumes the audience buys these products in the supermarket and represents them to be in a position of perhaps not knowing or in denial. For example, 'the fact you are so used to these crises and disasters in and around the things you eat, wear and use that you learned long ago', there is also the idea that the audience have realised their actions and that they're wrong and are willing to change, 'Create alternative models of consumption'. The lexis and language used is blunt, the audiences are forced to focus on the article with lack of colour, images and adverts and is nihilistic in creating a sense of powerlessness and helplessness. The dominant ideology of this article is that humans are causing problems for the planet and that they should make sacrifices, ‘Kill Yourself’ to ‘Save the Planet’, and that currently they believe that it is the other way round.

• The historical, cultural, social, political significance of representation that magazines offer is an ideology which they believe that the audience should believe in. 

• Gauntlet's theory of identity is the idea that the audience can pick or choose what ideologies suit them and ignore the ideologies which they disagree with, in this case the audience may choose to believe the article or not, however the article points out how the reader may be in denial about the situation. For example, ‘the fact you are so used to these crises and disasters in and around the things you eat, wear and use that you learned long ago’.