Living in New York City, we are bombarded with ads much more often than people that live in rural areas. Ads for alcohol are very common, which makes sense with such a large population of college students and young adults to consume them. Most of the ads I see seem like they are trying to embody the ideal of fun and happiness:
The ad is saying that by buying this alcohol you can feel young and beautiful and have fun with other beautiful people. With the tag-line, "Pursue Your Daydreams", it's saying that we should be thinking about achieving this level of fun on a daily basis. This ad can be aimed at either men or women and it's telling us that by drinking this alcohol we leave the regular world behind and live the life we have always dreamed about.
Another alcohol ad I thought was particularly interesting was this absolut ad. It depicts a skinny woman in a nice black dress, sipping on a drink, and her pregnant husband. They seem to be in a very clean living room and with their dog, they all seem very put together. This ad is clearly more aimed at women, and it's saying by drinking our alcohol you can have a relationship where your boyfriend or husband does all the work, including having the kids. This ad plays upon the stay-at-home mom image and lets women know that they can be out having fun (and drinking absolut) while the husband takes care of everything else.
But, with all these ads, I think it's very interesting to come across culture-jamming ads that play upon the ideals that the original ads are trying to embody. I found this spoof of an absolut ad that uses the same marketing ideas, but flips them:
Clearly drinking alcohol isn't healthy, and this ad serves as a wake-up call to people that consume the other alcohol ads and think they can lead a lifestyle like the ones portrayed. Culture jamming ads such as this are very important in reminding us that all the ads we are playing on our internalized values and beliefs, and they also can remind us that the image we are shown can have many different connotations. We just need to choose which way we are going to interpret the ad, if at all.
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