Original Ad
One societal and sexist concern I immediately wanted to address with this project was the exploitation of celebrities to young girls in fashion and beauty advertisements. These ads, which depict conventionally attractive women demonstrating the product, serve to reinforce girls’ warped perception of beauty and contribute to low self-esteem. The ad I chose is from a store I shop at regularly, Aritzia, which sells mid-to-high priced clothing for women. Their signature item, the Super Puff jacket, has been advertised by many models and celebrities, such as the one in this ad, Kendall Jenner.
Clearly, this was an excellent marketing tactic for Aritzia as a single post with Jenner generated an immediate interest from new customers and the general public. However, the ad itself seems to be highlighting Jenner rather than the jacket itself. The words and taglines describing the jacket at the bottom of the advertisement seem to be describing Jenner more than the jacket, or rather, describe how you can become just like her- “the coolest, the smoothest, the baddest” by wearing this jacket. Similar to product placements in television shows or movies with famous celebrities not-so-subtly promoting the brand, this ad aims to create a sense of “I want to be her” among young girls, who look up to Jenner as an idealized depiction of beauty.
Therefore, my jammed ad will mostly aim to deconstruct the descriptive words at the bottom of the advertisement. While the original ad contains descriptions that are, at best, weakly performative (“So super fly” “Super Chill and Super Fresh”), they only serve to reinforce the focus on Kendall Jenner herself and the subliminal promise of how girls can become like her by wearing this jacket. The jammed version of this ad will show what the original ad is suggesting by clearly describing what the jacket represents- not a practical down jacket, but rather, a “be like me!” tactic that reinforces conventional beauty standards among young women.
“Jammed” Ad
In my jammed advertisement, I tried to retain the overall look of the original as much as possible, replacing the text at the top and bottom of the advertisement. The original advertisement has the same layout and general feel of a movie poster- a headline at the top “starring” Kendall Jenner, and some reviews at the bottom attesting to the function and look of the Super Puff jacket.
Just like a movie poster, the advertisement aims to lure potential consumers in with the promise of something great and attractive, so I wanted to subvert the advertisement to reveal what is really being sold- Kendall Jenner’s desirable characteristics rather than the jacket’s. This is what makes the advertisement attractive to most young girls- the subconscious desire to look like her and own the same jacket that she owns. I replaced the original headline “The greatest jacket in the galaxy just went super” with “Your biggest flaws just got covered by this jacket” in an attempt to highlight the self-esteem issues that these kinds of ads typically cause for girls. At the bottom of the advertisement, in the “reviews” section, I swapped the arbitrary descriptions for the jacket with what I think the reviews were really trying to promote- the idea that if you wear this jacket, you will be one step closer to achieving beauty.
I included a description that reads “Perfect skin. Really rich. Trust me, it works”. This is a commentary on another one of Kendall Jenner’s ads for ProActiv’s acne treatment that she received a lot of backlash for. It was revealed that Jenner did not actually use ProActiv to treat her acne, as she does have access to the most expensive treatments in the world, and was misleading young girls into buying products that contained harmful skin ingredients. This scandal has since faded into the background, and the excitement over Kendall Jenner’s appearance in Aritzia’s advertisements just emphasizes the effectiveness of such ads on the purchasing habits of young women who, innocently, just want to be considered beautiful.