Subvertising

Two billboards with the same original content; the billboard on the right is an example of subvertising after being vandalized.
The ExxonMobil logo as subverted by Greenpeace.
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Subvertising (a portmanteau of subvert and advertising) is the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements.[1] The cultural critic Mark Dery coined the term in 1991.[2] Subvertisements are anti-ads that deflect advertising's attempts to turn the people's attention in a given direction.[3] According to author Naomi Klein, subvertising offers a way of speaking back to advertising, ‘forcing a dialogue where before there was only a declaration.’[4] They may take the form of a new image or an alteration to an existing image or icon, often in a satirical manner.[5]

A subvertisement can also be referred to as a meme hack and can be a part of social hacking, billboard hacking or culture jamming.[6] According to Adbusters, a Canadian magazine and a proponent of counter-culture and subvertising, "A well-produced 'subvert' mimics the look and feel of the targeted ad, promoting the classic 'double-take' as viewers suddenly realize they have been duped. Subverts create cognitive dissonance, with the apparent aim of cutting through the 'hype and glitz of our mediated reality' to reveal a 'deeper truth within'.[citation needed]

Subvertising is a type of advertising hijacking (détournement publicité), where détournement techniques developed in the 1950s by the French Letterist International and later used by the better-known Situationist International have been used as a contemporary critical form to re-route advertising messages.

  1. ^ Barley, Alexander (May 21, 2001). "Battle of the image". New Statesman. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
  2. ^ Dekeyser, Thomas (2020-08-09). "Dismantling the advertising city: Subvertising and the urban commons to come". Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. 39 (2): 309–327. doi:10.1177/0263775820946755. ISSN 0263-7758.
  3. ^ Dery, Mark (1993). Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing, and Sniping in the Empire of Signs. New York: Open Media.
  4. ^ Klein, Naomi (8 May 1997). "Subvertising: Culture jamming reemerges on the media landscape". The Village Voice.
  5. ^ Bonner, Matt; Raoul, Vyvian (2022-11-28). "Subvertising: Sharing a Different Set of Messages". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2023-03-02.
  6. ^ "Clearing the Mindscape". Adbusters. March 4, 2009. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved 2010-12-09.