Adbusters Industry Research Tasks 4 and 5

 Industry Research Task 

Is the publisher a mainstream organisation or independent publisher?

Independent, mad for the purpose of non-profit

Is the publisher part of a media conglomerate?

The publishers takes inspiration and content from multiple artists and writers in order to include a lot of content inside the magazine

What other products (magazines or other media products) does the organisation produce?

Adbusters media foundation also produce things such as music due to having a large range of musicians, and also poems due to having poets

How is this significant for the magazine?

This means some content or opinions from music can be included in the magazine and has a wider target audience through some people who will listen

Brand Identity

what is the ideology/ethos of Adbusters?

To be activists against political ideas. left wing. Opposed to capitalistic views, and attempting to make a mockery of their ideologies. 

How does Adbusters subvert traditional magazine conventions, especially in relation to advertising?

Adbusters is different compared to normal forms of advertising due to the layout and format and way it contains advertising compared to the majority of magazines. This means that traditional magazines have adverts but they are minimal and not the main feature which contrasts with Adbusters who's pages rely completely on advertisements. 

How does the magazine interact with its audiences?

They are in constant communication with the audiences of the magazine, by sending them things and getting the audience to send in things to them, to often try and get their ideas. Adbusters will send themes of upcoming magazines or little snippets from the upcoming issue. They can get some content from audiences too depending on the quality of images or content they send on the email to Adbusters

Analytical task

How is the ideology and ethos evident in the set edition of Adbusters?

The ideology and ethos in that set edition of Adbusters is certain political and social talking points such as climate change and the idea of phones being used as tracking device. Commonly in the magazine they support stereotypes such as racial injustice by the selection of imagery, especially when describing poverty. This is made clear by the choice of images Adbusters use in order to emphasise a point across. This is done to create an image in the readers head and get a clear message across to readers, even though they are using very extreme visualisation to do so. They aim to make a mockery of capitalisic views, such as Louboitin whos prices are so expensive for a product that isn't even necessary as people in poorer locations make do with using a bottle for shoes, and the image of a highly expensive tap manufacturing company advert bunched in with climate change and how some poorer countries dont even have access to water and other key resources. Both of these adverts make a mockery as to why people would pay for both of those things as some people don't even have access to the basics 

Buy Nothing Day

Buy nothing day is a day of protest promoted by Adbusters and used to examine and make a mockery on overconsumption. This means performing in other activities instead of going out shopping. It occurs the day after the US thanksgiving. Parties are often held with no costs involved in order to help back up the point

The Adbusters website

The website reinforces the brand identity of Adbusters due to the style of the images and the lack of writing included on the website. The font and inclusion of close up images. The colours of white background with block colours also represents the brand identity of Adbusters magazine. One piece of ideology from Adbusters is the theme of world news or climate news, which is something that is presented to the audience on the website as they are greeted by a headline which says WORLD REVOLUTION with an image of a bull included in order to make it look like an aggressive movement and aggressive change. On the website they also include messages or key ideas to get audience thinking and influence their ideology by what they read or see in the contents of the magazine. The style of clear bold colours and bold meaningful images for effect is a clear theme across the magazine trying to build effect on the reader. The website offers content which is different to the magazine by including videos and added information which cannot be found in the contents of the magazine

 

The two quotes will impact the audience due to the fact the images give a clear and deep message which will impact how an audience views things and technology that they use everyday. It fits the ideology of Adbusters as it will impact how the audience feel about certain things. For the first quote regarding a person sitting alone in a room with no book or device, shows how reliant humans have become to technology for attention, and how they struggle without those equipment to be alone. This is highly significant as it will make people question how they are and how much they rely on technology. The fact the quote has been said by a professor of social studies and technology will make it extra believable. It shows how technology such as phones has changed how people behave and how they think. This links with the picture above due to the images of people being glued to their phones and disinterested in communicating with other people, and the fact the picture is what is placed before the text is a specific Adbusters feature which is that text is almost more important and more eye-catching than the text. The second quote is an undermining what majority of people do by taking their phones everywhere. In the second quote it makes a political reference which is very common from Adbusters and an ideology of their newspapers. The quote will have an influence on how people view what they do and the link to what the computer security expert is saying, with the quote seeming much more believable due to the term expert, meaning his view can be trusted and correct. He also speaks about how people give out private or important details which can internally be stored or tracked and have big implications if necessary, which will potentially have a large impact on the audience reading as the two quotes share an idea of how technology gives people less attention and less control over certain things, and is addictive due to the images presenting they are brainwashed and addicted to looking at a screen and relying on it for entertainment.