GDC, Week 2. Anti- Consumerism and Adbusters Magazine

Anti-Consumerism is a sociopolitical ideology that’s against consumerism which discourages an ever-growing purchasing and consumption of material possessions.

It’s concerned about corporation’s social welfare & politics, environmental protection, ethics, animals-rights.

People who support Anti-Consumerism believe that advertising is one of the roles that feeds values and assumptions - obtaining more to achieve a certain standard or security in life. They are concerned over corporations’ economic goals at the expense of environmental, social, or ethical concerns.

One of these has become an AdBuster Magazine which supported social and environmental protection :

AdBuster used the McD ‘M’ logo in their ads to show how bad fast food really is, like how by eating lots of fast food you will die younger. They used wordplay by saying you’ll get a Big Mac attack instead of a heart attack; they also used the ‘M’ logo as the lifeline.

AdBuster’s Absolut Vodka posters outlines the design advocacy in general and its relation to commercial design culture in a consumerist economy. For their Absolut Vodka posters, AdBuster replicated Absolut Vodka’s iconic bottle silhouette ads with creative copywriting, showing the consequences of over-drinking - slower performance, suicide, violence, coma, etc.

The strategy that AdBuster used were simple and straight to the point, conveying a direct message in each of their posters.

References :

Anti-consumerism Movement (n.d) https://www.britannica.com/topic/anticonsumerism-movement

Tim Kasser, "The High Price of Materialism", 2002, p.9, Achorn Graphic Services

What's the Difference Between Anti-Consumerism and Post Consumerism? (2017, August 30). Retrieved from https://www.postconsumers.com/2016/03/23/anti-consumerism-and-postconsumerism/