Author Archives: siddharth birla

Culture Jamming Assignment

Original Advertisement

Source: https://akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com/indiatoday/images/story/201611/ran647_112516052252.jpg

Written Analysis

The original advertisement is part of Jack and Jones’ Indian marketing efforts. The image shows a man, in this case, a world-famous Bollywood star, and a woman who is wearing a short skirt and sleeveless shirt, who seems to be happy to be over his shoulders. Behind both of them, there is an elevator operator who seems to be excited about the situation as he smiles at both of them leaving their workplace. The image itself is mostly self-explanatory. The connotation is that if you wear Jack and Jones’ “sharp office shirts”, you too could be going home with one of your female coworkers. The tagline, “Don’t hold back. Take your work home.”, is clearly targeted towards a male audience. The beginning of the tagline, “don’t hold back”, suggests an idea that women have no say in whether they need to engage with their male coworkers or not. It makes it feel like men have all the right and have been purposefully holding back from doing something like this before. It not only degrades women’s rights, but it also shows that regardless of what women think, men are the ones who decide what they want, and what they want to do in every case and don’t require any form of consent. Furthermore, the second part of the tagline refers to the women as “your work”. The word “your” objectifies women and makes them look like they are someone’s property. Followed by “work”, it makes the audience feel like women are just a task and something to complete or fulfill. If we extend this meaning, we can say that the word suggests that without the men, women are incomplete and unfulfilled. The whole poster can also be seen as a promotion for rape culture. The man in the image is winking and seems like he is confident that his actions are normal and whatever he is doing, is what others should do as well. It is potentially encouraging male sexual aggression at workplaces. Having the woman and elevator operator laugh as well, it further enhances this misleading and completely inappropriate idea.

(Words: 350)

Jammed Advertisement

Written Explanation

After deconstructing the original and unpacking its meanings, I created a jammed version of the advertisement. I began my edit by removing the second line and then replacing it with something else so that I could make the tagline focused on women instead. I replaced the line with “Give the men what they want.” I made this edit because I felt that the company did not design this advertisement to make their end consumer more pleased with their real self, but rather made it trigger the consumer to imagine and see the perspective of their ideal self. In psychology, the real self-shows who we really are. It is how we think, how we feel, look and act. On the other hand, the ideal self is how we want to be. It is an idealized image that we have developed over time, based on what we have learned and experienced (Study.com, n.d.). The original advertisement was developed and aimed towards attracting the Indian market, where women are still lacking rights and are still required to prioritize taking care of the men in their lives. On the other hand, men in the country are dominant and make decisions regardless of whether it is right or wrong. To signify this problem, I purposefully made the word “men” in a larger and bolder font. I wanted to showcase that men within Indian society are bigger and stronger than the women, and no matter what the women think or want, the men are always right in whatever they do. The revised tagline can also be taken in a sexual manner as the man in the image is winking towards the audience. This gesture can be seen as a way of flirting or having secret intentions (Bhatti, 2018). By giving “the men what they want”, women are directly keeping the man happy, once again emphasizing the male dominant society. We can further extend this by saying that the woman is laughing and seems happy too. This shows that a woman’s happiness lies within a man’s happiness. The alteration was done to reveal the hidden demeaning message.

Bhatti, S. (2018, March 19). What Does it Mean When Someone Winks at You? Retrieved from SocialMettle: https://socialmettle.com/what-does-it-mean-when-someone-winks-at-you

Study.com. (n.d.). Ideal Self vs. Real Self: Definition & Difference. Retrieved from Study.com: https://study.com/academy/lesson/ideal-self-vs-real-self-definition-lesson-quiz.html

(Words: 350)