Adbusters and Agency

The point of the three Adbuster ads might be to illustrate the subjective agency of popular ad campaigns by re-creating the ads with an ironic twist. Two of the spoofs are directed at the masculine force of advertisements and the male demographic the ads are aimed towards. The Absolut Vodka ad shows the subjectiveness of the idea of drinking alcohol. The one-sided glamorization of drinking hard liquor is challenged with the headline, "Absolut Impotence," under a wilting bottle of vodka. Cause too much drinking makes your dick limp just as the overuse of unjustified claims allows the advertisers to manipulate their viewer's perception of agency. 

The Tommy Hilfinger ad, showing a cluster of sheep under an American flag, plays off the all-American, hard-working, "God's Country", farmland images that are often a main theme for Hilfinger ads. I interpret the spoof as making an analogy between viewers/consumers of advertising to the follow-without-question stereotype of sheep. We lose the perspective that we, as consumers, posses choices when it comes to what we wear and where we purchase it. 

The Clavin Kline spoof ad has the image of a buff dude looking down his boxers at his penis, under the massive headline, "Obsession." What is Calvin Kline trying to say when they use white, muscular/masculine men in only their underwear to sell their products? Will it make my penis bigger? Or even help to create an image of myself that says I must have something in common with Marky Mark's muscular bulge if I wear the underpants he has on in an ad? It's subjective how someone might view an ad with a manly-man stripped to his undies. The gay population would view it much differently than hetero-bodybuilders. Anyone can make an attempt at shaping a person's concept of their agency, manipulating them to act a certain way. Or we can realize how subjective agency really is and enable ourselves by making more well informed, thought-out decisions.