A Brief History of Parody Advertisements

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In society parody advertisement is commonly used to draw attention to common issues in society that are normally overlooked. The first type of parody advertisements were caricatures. In history caricatures were used to prove a point in politics. Today most parody advertisements express views on alcohol, drugs, and other common issues that people struggle with to “fit-in” with society. A few examples of parody advertisements are Absolute on Ice, Barcode Escape, and Feed Me Spoof. These parody advertisements deal with issues such as: drinking and driving, underage drinking, money controlling society, the thrifting movement, and anorexia nervosa. These are common issues that have been around for years but in recent years they have become a greater problem than ever before, the parody advertisements are just one form of aid that is being used to put an end to the problems.
The parody advertisement Absolute on Ice was meant to get the point across about drunk driving. The advertisement depicts a dead body with the words “ Absolute on Ice” at the bottom and underneath those words are some facts about automobile fatalities and alcohol ads. The dead body makes a bold statement because people normally do not associate alcohol with death because they feel that drugs are worst. Also not showing a gender or face on the body proves that death from alcohol can target anyone. The advertisement is targeted to underage drinking because on the body tag the age of the person is eighteen and the facts below relate to teenagers. The advertisement also relates back to society because majority of teenagers follow what is seen on television. The facts at the bottom state that “A teenager sees 100,000 alcohol ads before reaching the legal drinking age” ...

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...ed because they are making their own money and can now buy these high priced items. In society the high price “in style” items are mostly made for the thinner people. So therefore one can say that these the artist were attempting to speak to this age range when creating these advertisements.
Parody advertisements are needed in society because they help express the view point that people may never see through regular means of media. Throughout the years they have been a help success even when they were mainly aimed at politics. Parody advertisements will only continue to grow and become more well know as time goes on. They balance out the society and the artist bring attend to intense topics that mainstream media is too censored to even attempt to deal with. These three advertisements or only tiny example of the amount of parody advertisements that have been created.

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