Adbusters - Christian Louibouton Advert and Runway Advert

Adbusters - Christian Louibouton Advert

Commodity fetishism- The idea and process of ascribing magic 'phantom-like' qualities to an object, whereby the human labour required to make that object is lost once the object is associated with monetary value for exchange.

• Christian Louibouton is a designer brand well-known for the red-sole high heels.
• Commodity fetishism, the iconic shoes have a magic 'phantom-like' quality to it.
• There is a juxtaposition with the brand and with the imagery of the person's feet using plastic bottles as shoes, this communicates an anti-consumerist ideology and is a culture jam of the company and its adverts.
• The representations of ethnicity is constructed by Gilroy's post-colonialism theory, the image represents the difference between Western countries and post-colonial countries. The person is wearing shoes made of plastic bottles, the background suggests the person is in a hot and dry climate (scorched ground) suggesting drought/famine. There is a sense of racial hierarchy between post-colonial countries and Western countries. Structuralism - binary oppositions a designer brand and someone wearing bottles as shoes.
• The audience is positioned in relation to these representations as the preferred reading (Hall's reception theory) as they are the target audience, they know what Adbusters is like and it caters to their interests.
• The idea of 'otherness' is created in the advert to create a social and economic point about the inequality of power, using stereotypical representation of ethnicity.
• The tagline, 'red soles are always in season', the brand is iconic for red-sole shoes and 'season' a term associated with fashion however it is 'always in season' from the lexis used, fashion changes each season but this person would probably be wearing bottle shoes, shows further binary oppositions and inequality.
• Irony is created as the red-sole high heel shoes costs lots of money and usually heels hurt your feet and people are paying for that whereas this person's feet hurt so they made free shoes.
• The theory of identity by Gauntlett, is the idea the audience can pick 'n' mix what their identity is and whether they have to same ideology as the magazine of being anti-consumerist.
• Barthes' semiotic codes, the hermenuetic code to the audience making them wonder what the image of the person's feet and the meaning that the magazine is trying to convey.

Adbusters - Runway Advert

• Levi-Strauss' theory of binary oppositions is found in the two images, one of which is a model on the runway and the other is of people behind a barbed-wire fence. This perhaps represents the exploitation, the people may of made the clothing but the model wearing it will earn more from it. The model is also wearing high-end and what would be seen as nice clothes whereas the people in the above photo are wearing non-designer and 'undesirable' clothing.
• The stereotypes found is that the model is white and successful whereas the people behind the barbed wire are of colour and in poverty.
• The mode of the address is direct, without lexis, suggests the target audience and preferred reading (Hall's reception theory) are perhaps middle-class, creating the sense of guilt for exploiting the people to buy clothes.
• Post-colonialism is seen as the effects after countries were previously colonised, it benefited the Western country and not the colonised country.
• Culture Jamming, it is usually found in magazines models in adverts but mocks it using another image of people behind barbed wire fence and in suggested poverty.
• Gauntlett's identity theory, says the the audience pick 'n' mix their ideologies and identities in whether or which they believe in what the message that the magazine is spreading; the message of the magazine is anti-consumerism with left-wing politics.
• Semiotic codes, the hermeneutic code in the advert is that the audience questions what the meaning of it is, as there are no obvious meanings.
• Commodity Fetishism is giving objects a magic ‘phantom-like’ quality, in this case perhaps the dress the model is wearing but it is juxtaposed with the image above as something people wouldn’t want to have.