Assignments displaying my understanding of media.
Representation Project- Counter Ad
Lately, I’ve noticed how overly-feminine, glitzy, and superficial ads for menstrual products are. They dance shyly around the realities of menstruation, use blue liquid to represent blood, and often show off glittery, pink almost childlike packaging which can feel patronizing. Ads for menstrual products almost never feature people who don’t identify as female. This combined with the hyper-femininity of the ads is exclusionary of people who menstruate but do not identify as women. The intention of my ad was to contrast the nature of most tampon ads by being maybe a little too brutal and take gender completely out of the equation.
Advertising and Commercial Media- Counter Ad
Artist’s Statement & Model Images
I chose to target Covergirl with my counter add for two main reasons. The first being that they are a cosmetic company that uses animal testing, and the second being that their ads are simple, bright and lack color making them easy to re-imagine. Originally, I intended to use photoshop to replace a model with a mildly gross image of rabbit or mouse that had been tested on and replace any text with some witty play on words or statement about the cruelty of animal testing. After spending a considerable amount of time sifting through several images that I thought were too graphic to use, I remembered that I had no idea how to use photoshop. So I decided to hand draw an add instead.
This image is intentionally blank and devoid of color. The lack of color in the image both mirrors the format of many Covergirl ads and makes it appear sad and empty. The rabbit crying blood is meant to be a slightly more subtle way to represent the cruelty of animal testing. Everything about the add from the lack of color, to the crude writing of Covergirl’s “easy, breezy, beautiful” slogan is meant to look and feel empty and off. By inserting the rabbit in what appears to be a normal add with no changes to the text Covergirl would normally use the add represents how cosmetic companies treat animal testing as something normal and necessary, instead of the disgusting practice it really is.
Kalea Monroe 