Ad Buster

I chose to subvert an Olay facial cleansers advertisement. The message of the ad is one of natural beauty. It advocates for a better, clear, and beautiful face. The woman in the ad-a celebrity- has a clear complexion after apparently washing her face, yet still she maintains perfect makeup. The advertisement is intended for young women from about 14 to 30 years of age. It excludes older women and men in general from its audience. It targets younger woman rather than older woman because, first, it was found in Seventeen Magazine, which is sold to young women usually in their teens and early twenties. Furthermore, it encourages fun and “glamming it up” with a younger celebrity face. These key words and phrases are characteristic of the attitude of a younger generation. The advertisement exploits emotions of youthfulness, refreshment, vibrancy, and desire. It makes the audience desire the clean, beautiful face pictured and all that is associated with it in the ad-fun, glam, and youth.  Olay advertises that a natural beauty is attainable with their products. I chose to contrast this by morphing the ad into an advertisement for artificial beauty.

By changing the words and parts of the image, I transformed the image into an advertisement for plastic surgery. Key words like change, injection, and surgeon were taped over the ad. These words made a stark contrast from the happy and fun vocabulary of the original advertisement. Then, images of surgical equipment were pasted over the makeup tools and cleansers, contrasting the severity of surgery with the simplicity of makeup. Finally, red dashed lines were drawn on the face imitating the markings of a surgeon for surgery. The lines make the face seem less than human and evoke a daunting feeling. The red color is also indicative of the harshness and severity of plastic surgery. I chose to do all these things to expose society’s obsession with the perfect complexion and celebrity lifestyle. They turn to such drastic measures as surgery to physically transform their faces. They look to artificial beauty rather than the natural beauty advertised originally.