Adbusters Flashcards
(17 cards)
Industry:
written/published by?
what type of company is adbusters? & what does this mean vs other magazines?
what does adbusters receive funding from?
who was the company
founded by?
what do adbusters describe themselves as?
what do they encourage?
how do they spread their messages?
how do they encourage audiences?
what does digital magazines/subscriptions tell us about audiences?
- by Adbusters media foundation (a small independent media company
- ‘not for profit’ company, with NO paid for adverts featured. most magazines rely heavily on ads for revenue.
- adbusters receive funding from the sales of the magazine (£10.99 cover price), sell merchandise, allows people to donate towards the magazine.
- founded in 1989, by Lasn & Shmalz filmmakers, who were both environmental enthusiasts & documentary film makers
- as an ‘activist hub’, fighting for social change
- encourage rebellion against capitalist consumer culture
- spread messages through their own billboards about capitalism, consumerism, politics, not to promote the magazine (e.g., digital detox week, knowing most of their users are on tech anyway).
- they invite audience submissions (to send in) of paintings, art, photos, letting audiences become producers
- adbusters has subscribers in over 60 countries (print/digital). does reach a reasonable audience, considering how niche they are.
- that audiences are using more technology, meaning increase in digital magazines rather than print. (useful to target audiences that are digitally convergent)
Industry:
whats google bombing and why do the Adbusters media foundation use it?
how do they encourage audiences/interactivity?
whats ‘grassroots anarchy’?
- getting people to create hundreds of fake accounts to confuse google’s search algorithms. it shows what the company want when audiences search something.
e.g., search ‘idiot’, the pic of trump appears - by including #’s to encourage audiences to contribute towards viral trends
- grassroots anarchy is where they encourage their audiences to take part in their cause too
Industry:
regulation:
why’s it hard to regulate adbusters?
give an eg when adbusters got banned/bad publicity… (3)
- as magazine is sold in many countries, hard to regulate all of the content, every country has different rules/laws
- once Adbusters got bad publicity by being ‘anti-semitism’ within their articles
- Canada TV also refused to sell any slots to Adbusters for some of their ‘spoof adverts’ & ended up banning them.
- Canada took the Adbusters magazine off their shelves as there were many complaints for the brutal images/text shown throughout (however online magazine can’t be censored)
- can be considered extreme content
Industry:
Curran & Seaton:
- Adbusters challenges the idea that media companies are focused heavily on power & profit.
- they are a small company that has big ideas/opinions of politics, capitalism, democracy…
- find it hard to fund themselves as tend to promote the messages rather than the actual magazine.
front page Visual:
Ideologies: (4)
- Capitalism - ‘busting the ads’, not a magazine designed to make profit. (shown through masthead as its damaged, partially unreadable, camouflaged. suggests that Adbusters doesn’t care about its brand identity)
- Democracy - an activist magazine devoted to challenging consumerism. (shown through title ‘post-west’, indicating the western consumer habits of America (lots of money), whilst the ‘post’ referring to war/violence)
- Gender - male image, suggested male audience for this issue of the magazine?
- Ethnicity - white male dressed in army, cameo looking vest. -> links to spine cover ‘living dangerously’/going into war to bust ads
Page 20 (Louibouton)
Visual: (3)
what does this do for the audience? (2)
what are the producers doing with this image? (2 & SLOGAN)
V - closeup of damaged chapped feet, wearing plastic bottles as shoes.
- creates a binary opposition of high-end luxury vs absolute poverty.
- can see deliberately low production values, looks as though the pic was taken on a very old phone
A - visual forces the target audience to confront extreme poverty.
- gives audience the chance to come up with their own opinion on the situation/binary opposition
P - they are recontextualising the idea of luxurious shoes
- they’re acting hypocritical, preaches against capitalism/consumerism but its a consumer product?
SLOGAN = adbusters are arguing that in our capitalist society, that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer
Page 21 (runway vs poverty)
Visual: (4)
what does this do for the target audience?
V - is a spoof ad, features poverty, indicates that people are interested in models & the runway, but people are trapped in poverty (binary opposition)
- binary opp - poverty vs wealth, fear vs calm, violence vs peace, shabbiness vs high fashion
- unconventional, very few words, unclear what to look at 1st
- could represent fast fashion & adbusters attempt to put an end to it & warn/influence audiences
A - unconventional, the target audience have no anchorage, have to guess & work out what the meaning behind the picture is
- assume the target audience has quite a lot of cultural capital (knowledge of capital)
- Adbusters use diametrically opposed ideological perspectives to position audiences in uncomfortable & confusing modes of address
What is Adbusters’ main political and economic stance? (purpose)
Adbusters is an anti-capitalist magazine that challenges for-profit ideologies and avoids advertising to reject capitalist values.
Who is Adbusters’ target audience?
Activists and socially conscious individuals who are likely well-read, educated, and aware of socio-political issues and luxury branding.
How does Adbusters construct its mode of address?
Through a deliberately uncomfortable, confrontational tone, encouraging audiences to reflect and think critically.
How is Adbusters unconventional in terms of branding?
It has a lack of consistent masthead or brand identity, reflecting its anti-commercial nature.
What is unique about Adbusters’ representation of gender and identity?
It breaks stereotypical representation, e.g., using images of naked women to represent poverty rather than sexuality—subversive and thought-provoking.
How does Adbusters engage its audience in meaning-making?
It deliberately avoids anchorage, leaving meaning open and requiring the audience to interpret the message themselves.
Why is Adbusters considered polysemic?
Its messages are complex and open to multiple interpretations, unlike mainstream media which often has clear, anchored meanings.
How does the shoe double-page spread reflect Adbusters’ approach?
It uses subversive representation and a confrontational style to position the audience in a challenging, reflective mode.
How does Adbusters differ from mainstream magazines like Woman?
Unlike Woman, Adbusters has no ads, doesn’t aim to maximize profit, and challenges instead of comforts its audience.
Page 70 - Glitter Bomb
Visual: (3)
how does this make the audience feel?
V - Leaders fighting over the world. (e.g., Trump, Obama, the Pope, Teresa May..)
- they’re playing a game of rugby with the world in their hands - resembles the ‘powers of play’.
- the shirts represent the world’s environment and how there is a fight between certain leaders. fossil fuels vs environment (binary opp)
- makes audience question US leadership as it is Obama vs Trump at the top fighting for the world(ball).
