Subvertising
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Subvertising is a portmanteau of subvert and advertising. It refers to the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. Subvertisements may take the form of a new image or an alteration to an existing image or icon, often in a satirical manner. A subvertisement can also be referred to as a meme hack and can be a part of social hacking or culture jamming. 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. It cuts through the hype and glitz of our mediated reality and, momentarily, reveals a deeper truth within."
Subvertising can be considered a successor to Détournement, a technique developed in the 1950s by the French Letterist International and later used by the better known Situationist International.
In 1972, the logo of Richard Nixon's reelection campaign posters was subvertised with two x's in Nixon's name (as in the Exxon logo) to suggest the corporate ownership of the Republican party.
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