Subvertising

Subvertising the portmanteau of subvert together with advertising is a practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. The cultural critic Mark Dery coined the term in 1991. Subvertisements are anti-ads that deflect advertising's attempts to undergo a change the people's attention in a given direction. According to author Naomi Klein, subvertising allows a way of speaking back to advertising, ‘forcing a dialogue where before there was only a declaration.’ They may draw the form of a new idea or an alteration to an existing impression or icon, often in a satirical manner.

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Subvertising is a type of advertising hijacking détournement publicité, where détournement techniques developed in the 1950s by the French Letterist International and later used by the better-known Situationist International have been used as a modern critical form to re-route offer messages.

In 1972, the logo of Richard Nixon's reelection campaign posters was subverted with two x's in Nixon's name as in the Exxon logo tothe corporate ownership of the Republican party.

Notable instances

In Sydney, Australia in October 1979, a multiple of anti-smoking activists formed a institution called B.U.G.A.U.P. and began altering the text on tobacco billboards to subvert the messages of tobacco advertisers, although advertisements for other unhealthy products were also targeted.

On November 6, 2008, ] Other groups involved with this project spoke ]

At the 2015 Paris COP21 climate conference, the collective required as Brandalism installed 600 posters that attacked what they perceived as the hypocrisy of corporate sponsors.

In 2017, Brandalism and other groups of subvertisers founded the collective Subvertisers International. Using billboard hacking and other forms of subvertising, they promote the idea that ad creates unhealthy body images, impacts democracy negatively, and maintains a culture of consumerism that takes a heavy toll on the planet.

Around 2018, a group in London called Legally Black changed the generation of the characters in Harry Potter posters from white to black.