Hello Everyone,
Here is my first post, the GRSJ 300 Culture Jam Assignment. The first image is the original ad
The Original Viagra Ad
Source: Retrieved from http://www.marketingmag.ca/advertising/pfizer-markets-viagra-price-drop-to-fight-generics-66527
My Jammed Version of the Ad
Written Analysis
Written Analysis
The original ad is a print ad for Viagra, claiming how it is now offered at the same price as generic male erectile dysfunction drugs. However, the problem with this advertisement is that it alludes to the medicalization of male health while subsequently oppressing female sexuality. Medicalization in this case refers to the process of how sexual dysfunction can be cured through neo-liberal policies. Essentially, consumers can be swayed to purchase products that attempt to “cure” their problems through physiological means while ignoring the larger process of psychological or emotional relationship troubles shared between couples. In addition, it also villanizes/dehumanises the female orgasm by ignoring the needs of older females (although there are recent FDA approved flibanserin, also known as the female Viagra). The issue I take with this advertisement is that it attempts to portray human sexuality in a commercialist light, where every little pill and medicine will “solve” any problems. Viagra pills are expensive, and the mass-media marketing campaign driven by pharmaceutical companies perpetuates the notion that there is an inherent necessity in society for neo-medicalized practices. Furthermore, the use of medicalization creates the notion that sex (and subsequently achieving orgasm) is restricted for virulent and fertile young men. The very fact that older adults have to resort to prescription pills to “solve” erectile dysfunction further emphasizes how pharmaceutical companies are exploiting everyday consumers. Another example of this would be the HPV vaccine, where pharmaceutical companies are embarking on the notion of the vaccine as the panacea to solve cervical cancer (related to sexuality) in women.
Written Explanation
I am not a creative person. I do not know if this post will even reach the UBC GRSJ 300 website. This was the first time I had created a blog/used photo editing software. Thus, I had to rely on my own creativity in terms of text. I wanted to use my rhetoric in a sardonic, scathing manner in order to highlight the problems associated with neo-medicalization in society.
My failure at using the photo-editing software is evident in the picture I used, a PNG of a golden ball and shackles which is meant to metaphorically represent a phallic image of male sexuality. The very fact that it is “bent” rather than straightened out is an allusion to the problems older males face. Had I been more proficient in with this software, I would have wanted to put a more subtle symbol/image within the jammed advertisement.
The true purpose of my prose-heavy jammed advertisement was to provoke discussion and outrage. Nonetheless, I felt that my message was quite clear when I said how the pill was a “price to reclaim your manhood.” In this statement, I revealed the male hegemonic nature within society and its inherent focus on female sexuality. Hence, I referred to how Viagra and other male impotence drugs were similarly set at exorbitant prices meant to exploit and manipulate consumers into a neo-medicalized model of health. This is where I sardonically referred to pharmacists as “drug dealers” who push FDA approved drugs onto people without considering the impact of psychological, social, and emotional needs. Thus, what I wanted most in this culture jam assignment was to show how human sexuality fell along gender lines while being exploited by large pharmaceutical companies in an attempt to neo-liberalize the notion of male health.