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Original Ad

The original ad I chose to culture jam was one from a healthcare provider that boasted ‘complete medical coverage’. I was interested in doing a culture jam of a healthcare-related ad because of the existing and ongoing inequities in the scheme of healthcare in many countries across the world, including countries that are supposedly amongst the most ‘democratic’. For example, there is an ongoing healthcare crisis in the United States today, even though the nation considers itself one of the most developed in many areas, including healthcare. Often, it is not rare for citizens that are living in poverty to resort to back-alley methods for healthcare due to the exorbitant cost of medical care in the US. The issue is particularly amplified for individuals of minority groups, due to the structural inequities in the system that make it much more difficult for them to succeed in society, as well as the tendency for even medical professionals to treat them with discrimination. Moreover, the way healthcare providers work (especially in the US) is often vague and inaccessible––many are faced with much higher medical bills because they did not read the fine text upon signing on them, leading to long-term debt issues that plague entire families across the country. I wanted to especially highlight the often ambiguous nature of healthcare conditions in the US with my culture jam since I felt that it was ironic to see the countless number of ads touting their ‘amazing healthcare plans at affordable rates’  despite being anything but that. Therefore, the goal of my culture jam project is to highlight the glaring inequities in healthcare systems (namely the US one) and the hypocrisy of many healthcare providers.

(image description: I was made aware that the fine text cannot be enlarged by clicking on the image and will be blurry if the user tries to zoom in, so here is a transcription of the fine text on the bottom:

*Restrictions may apply. Not applicable to the most marginalized in society; including but not limited to the impoverished, immigrants, the LGBTQIA+, womxn, indigenous communities, and people of colour.)

The above image is my jammed version of the initial ad. I actually tried to make as little changes as possible in order to make it seem as if it was a completely normal ad for healthcare or medical coverage that you would expect to see on a billboard or in a magazine. I added the asterisk and fine text at the bottom because I felt that this is a very common trend that appears in pretty much any kind of marketed product, but I find it to be particularly malicious for healthcare purposes. Personally, I would have liked to make the fine text even smaller so it is even more unnoticeable to the consumer of the ad, but I was unable to make it smaller and still readable at the same time. I wanted to invoke feelings of anger and disappointment in the consumer when viewing the jammed version since I feel that this best mirrors my personal reaction towards the inequities in healthcare coverage in the US. My goal was to make the fine text sound nonchalant and casual, as if cutting minority populations out of the healthcare system was not a particularly exhausting or even appalling feat. This was attempted with the usage of the phrase ‘including, but not limited to’; which is commonly used in promoting the merits of a certain product being sold (e.g. ‘the exclusive features of this product are including, but not limited to…’), which I felt would even more strongly juxtapose the horror of the message conveyed in the fine text. Obviously, not all institutions aiming to provide medical coverage are as deeply flawed or even outrightly abhorrent as the one I tried to depict in my culture jam, but I believe it is important to reach the extremes in creating these pieces of media as they are able to force a strong and often even uncomfortable reaction from the audience, which I believe to be the first step to understanding deep-rooted issues that are structurally ingrained in the workings of society.