I’m thrilled to share the progress of my IDEA Grant project, which aims to critique modern advertising and corporate environmental impacts through an innovative and provocative ad campaign. The central concept of my campaign is to commodify happiness, emphasizing the elusive and deceptive nature of consumer advertising. For this advertising campaign, I have chosen to keep the “product”—happiness—elusive and non-existent.
This approach critiques how companies often sell the idea that their product will improve the consumer’s mental or physical state. By not selling anything tangible, my campaign underscores the façade of advertising and the empty promises often inherent in commercial messaging. My primary socio-political critique targets the environmental impact of corporations. While I will also touch on ethical labor practices, my focus is on how businesses contribute to environmental degradation. By integrating subtle critiques within the ads, I aim to highlight the hypocrisy of corporate environmental activism.
The use of transactional elitism phrases such as “Build your own true Hapine$$,” “Ultimate get-away,” and “Exclusive deals” will reinforce this critique, mimicking the language of credit card and hotel travel rewards programs, particularly those of Hilton, Marriott, and American Express. The campaign will blend a sleek, professional look with provocative text, inspired by The Onion, Guerrilla Girls, Yes Men, and Metahaven’s Facestate series. Maintaining a consistent style similar to Metahaven’s work, the campaign will juxtapose polished visuals with subversive messages. The campaign, under the fictitious brand name “inStatic”—a play on “ecstatic” to reflect the static, unchanging nature of socio-political issues—will encompass multiple platforms and formats: Website and Social Media, Physical Posters and Banners, Zines and Travel Brochures, and Potential Cryptocurrency.
For June, I want to delve into my first advertising campaign which is a travel brochure. I want to further develop and incorporate my passport image as the front of the brochure. Then utilize images similar to the woman on the boat I want to incorporate data on pollution, political unrest, or environmental disasters; these data sets will draw the image similar to ASCII text images. I also want to incorporate images of popular travel destinations and place a crypto price on each travel destination.
Challenges and Adjustments:
The most significant surprise has been the complexity of integrating cryptocurrency into the campaign. Navigating the technical and conceptual aspects has proven more challenging than anticipated. The biggest hurdles include ensuring the professional quality of all visual materials and effectively managing the multi-platform campaign to maintain consistent messaging and aesthetics. To prevent these challenges from hindering progress, I have allocated extra time for the research and development phases.
HSF House Blogs 