Blog 7: Advertising Consumer Cultures Desire

The “Just Douche It” spoof ad is trying to sell the idea that people who wear brand names, Nike in this example, look dumb and shouldn’t try to be a brand name rather than an individual. This ad as the chapter would describe it seems to be trying to change the idea of ‘coolness’ to that of douchiness in order to get people to open their eyes about the products and how they are acting. The ad is attempting a ‘culture jam’ against people who generally wear name brand products to get them to stop and think long enough to question their choices. An essential difference between this ad and the one it is mocking is that mainly of color. The Nike Swoosh is generally either solid white or solid black (depending on the background that it is on) but in this ad it is flamboyant green and pink, colors which some people may find offensive to gaze upon. These colors also clash and are not very trendy, so by insinuating that the people who wear Nike products are unfashionable, they attempt to dissuade them from buying the Nike gear. The colored swoosh is also compared to the glasses that the man is wearing, which are similarly colored and not very good looking. The purple wife-beater over the black t-shirt also adds to the stereotypically ‘douchey’ look that people attempt to pull off. Obviously this ad would also not work if he wasn’t actually wearing the clothing that the ad makes fun of, so almost every piece of apparel that he is wearing has a Swoosh on it somewhere.