Original Advertisement:

The advertisement I chose is one by Sisley, which is a French fashion brand. The brand prides itself on providing cutting-edge trends to its consumers, attracting those that are up-to-date with current fashion waves. Their advertisements portray the cool and sexy side of fashion, which is evident by their collaboration with photographer Terry Richardson, who created the advertisement that I have shared above. Using Terry Richardson, who is known for his highly sexualized photography style, is only the beginning of the problems with this advertisement. He has also been accused of sexual assault by many of the models that he has taken photos of, and many companies now refuse to work with him due to these allegations. The portrayal of women as objects in the fashion industry has always been an issue, but the advertisement brings another issue in this industry to light.

The glamourization of drug use to maintain a skinny body image is a widespread issue in the fashion industry, and Sisley’s advertisement tries to spread this influence to its consumers. By connecting an obsession with fashion (i.e. “fashioin junkie”) to cocaine use, it tries to tell buyers that true fashion lovers should also take on the habits of models to fully embrace the high fashion look. The use of overly thin models that also appear to show signs of heavy drug use further engrains this lifestyle into the minds of the consumer. Overall, this advertisement simply pushes incredibly unhealthy methods of achieving unrealistic body standards on female consumers.

Culture Jam:

Through my culture jam, I wanted to emphasize the seriousness of the drug use that the advertisement, and the fashion industry itself, tries to glamourize. The original photo simply connects the use of cocaine with losing weight, since this is a supposed method that many models use to maintain the “right” body shape for the high fashion. However, casual use of such drugs can lead to serious problems. The romanticization of such drug use for weight loss masks the issue of addiction that may be quite commonplace among users. Simply offering the idea of drug use as a way for women to lose weight in order to fit society’s expectations is problematic, and can lead to the normalization of very dangerous behaviours. Many fashion brands offer limited sizes and show their clothing worn by underweight models, forcing female consumers to believe that they need to have the same body shape in order to wear said clothing.

The photo that I used in my jammed image also depicts the use of prescription drugs, which is a much easier drug for the common consumer to obtain. Girls from a young age strive to look like models in advertisements do, so suggesting drug use as a way of achieving this body shape may influence younger and younger audiences to involve themselves in such unhealthy habits. By using an image with prescription drugs, it highlights the current issue of adolescents stealing their parents’ medication since it is the easiest way to acquire drugs. By introducing this idea to potential young female consumers, drug issues among adolescents may become an even larger issue.