Culture Jamming

I chose this particular advertisement because I disagree with most clothing ads that showcase a rail thin girl in their clothing. First of all, a regular person who is not so thin will not look like that in their clothing and secondly, no one wants to look like that. I worked for a retail company as an intern in their marketing department and the clothes that they chose went on the models that they chose because they say the research they have done on their target market says that the 70+ group would be more likely to buy clothes on a person who looks how they want to look. I don’t know anyone who wants to look so frail and sick.

The signifier in this advertisement is the body posing of the woman. She is frail looking and very passive. I chose to change this ad and create the new one to take on the role of détournement. The new representation of the advertisement is antagonistic compared to the first ad. When I looked at the original advertisement all I could see was an ad for anorexia, an eating disorder.

I used the girl in the advertisement the same as she was because her positioning and what the clothes looked like on her were already perfect for an eating disorder advertisement. To be honest, I haven’t seen any eating disorder advertisements but there should be more of those and less like the original Ralph Lauren ad. The original ad is sending off a bad image for women and girls who like that brand.

In more recent times, it seems to me that most of the women that are considered role models have more curves and are proud of them, like the Kardashian sisters or Scarlet Johanson. Those are the type of women that should be publicized in advertisements like this, but showing off their curves not trying to look sickly. There has been a lot of media attention recently towards women who are too skinny, like Lindsay Lohan in some recent years, but the brands that use these stick models don’t get the negative feedback. And this tells them its okay to do.

I chose the copy that I did because I envisioned this type of advertisement in a health clinic or at a doctor’s office, like the ones that they already have about alcohol or drug abuse. The copy that I chose was to make it less of a ‘you’re anorexic’ advertisement and more of a ‘if you need help’ positive advertisement.

The oppositional reading will hopefully make the point that some of the clothing advertisements go a little too far with the severity of their models body images. I want it to be known that it is not okay to look like that girl and that maybe Photoshop had something to do with what her body looks like. As long as the point of the new text on this advertisement says ‘its not okay’ and ‘its not normal’.