Absolut Adbustin

The “Absolute Hangover” ad is selling abstinence from alcohol.

According to “Advertising, Consumer Culture, and Desire,” this is the central difference between anti-ads and actual ads: the message. The chapter says that advertizing is not just asking individuals to consume products but consume semiotic meanings. It also calls anti-ads like Adbuster’s “Spoof Ads” examples of culture jamming — jamming different messages in consumer culture through “detournement,” or rerouting messages to create new meaning. In these anti-ads, mainstream values are questioned, bad labor practices are exposed, or negative effects of a product are shown. In the case of the “Absolute Hangover” ad, the negative effects of Absolut vodka are portrayed. The ad plays on the Absolut vodka bottle shape with a noose, clearly giving off the dangerous and suicidal ramifications of binge drinking. The semiotics, “Absolute Hangover” is both a play on the vodka’s brand name as well as a play on the image. The image of a noose implies “hanging” as the form of death, but the word hangover adds the more likely danger of feeling sick the morning after drinking. The spoof ad also lacks the bottle itself, therefore it lacks the “desirable” object in the normal ad. The actual Absolut ads are known for being “art,” according to the reading, and thus we as consumers seek Absolut as a form of “coolness and hipness.” The spoof ad therefore, also is going against the Absolut message by saying you don’t need Absolut to achieve this desired trendiness.