OUGD401 - COP Practical Research

What is the relationship between branding and the consumer self?’

In my essay I have explored how branding works to create an image around a product, selling us not only a product but a lifestyle, goals and values. I also looked at how they often aim to make us unhappy with what we have and convince us that we will be happier and our lives will improve if we buy something more, however we are never truly satisfied and therefore we consume more.

I have found this topic really interesting as some of the things I have learnt are things I had never really considered before or thought about. For my practical work I would like to create some ad busters style posters with the aim of getting young people like my self to start thinking more about the issue of consumerism. For my research I will look at ad busters work and other similar work. I will create my posters digitally and test them by asking people’s thoughts and opinions when they look at the posters.

Adbusters

The Nike spoof ads are probably my favourite ones by adbusters.  I like the use of humour within the ‘Just Douche It’ ads by changing Nike's famous strapline 'Just do it' to something humorous.

The sheep ad is also amusing as it is telling you to stop being a sheep and following the herd and to ‘rethink the cool’ and it’s not cool to look the same as everyone else. I think this one rings true as Nike is one of the biggest sports brand and everywhere you go you see people wearing Nike trainers. The ‘I’m sick of Just doing it’ is also humourous and effective as they are mocking Nike’s famous tagline again and the image of sheep again signifies following the crowd. 

I think these ads are effective and thought provoking as they are honest and it's a sad truth that most people don't think about when buying their Nike trainers and I think it's important to make people more aware and to think about these issues.

I think the 'Reality for men' ad is quite amusing as it is mocking Clavin Klein's ad's and the images of models with perfect bodies that have been photoshopped, when in reality people don't look like that. The 'Escape from Calvin Klein' ad is also effective as you can imagine them having a fragrance called Escape.

I find this one particularly amusing as again it is mocking Calvin Klein ads and the images of perfect models used within them. The fact that it says 'Fresh Young Chicken' could also be a reference to the fact that they use very fresh faced young looking models and I think Calvin Klein as a brand reflects a youthful, cool image.

I think this ad is particularly effective and the messages that they are putting across does make you stop and think . It is effective as it is done in the style of an Apple advert, so you can recognise what it is instantly even without the Apple logo.

I like the messages put accross in the above ads, these are similar to the message that I would like to put across within my own work as I think they are quite thought provoking.

I found these images on pinterest, I really like the style of this and the way they have turned corporate logos into anti consumerism messages is really effective.