We’re previously featured great examples of resistance to sexist advertising, but this example takes it up a level. Clownify describes itself as a “street art project to turn everyday ads into ads for clowns.” I’m not sure what political message they intend to send, but what I see is a super easy, I would even say graceful, way of knocking us into consciousness. If advertisements typically occupy our lives as a taken-for-granted source of psychological coercion, this campaign reminds us to (1) actually look at what we’re seeing and (2) remember not to take ads, their messages, or their products too seriously.
Here are four examples, but there are lots more at the site:
H/t copyranter.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 16
Bill R — March 27, 2014
I'm sure this is great fun for unsupervised 12-year old boys and others with their mentality. Don't think for a minute it has any affect on society other than to make us even more jaded at the defacing of objects in the public space, and encouraging other miscreants to deface ads in their own way (think of drawings with overt sexism in the extreme).
And what do you think intellectualizing it does?
Yep...nothing.
Andrew — March 27, 2014
Compared to the Billboard Liberation Front (featured here before), this project seems relatively apolitical and undiscriminating in its targets. Comedy acts such as Jimmy Kimmel and the cast of Portlandia are targeted just as much as the muscled hardbodies and bikini ads; it doesn't seem to matter much if we weren't supposed to take the ad's content seriously in the first place.
Kolio — March 28, 2014
Most probably it is linked to the Rebel Clown Army anti-capitalist group, in which case they are quite political interventions : )
http://www.clownarmy.org/
Tex Allen — March 28, 2014
Hey Lisa!
This got shared on my wall IMMEDIATELY after it was posted.
Let me ask you, what if someone wore a clown Nose in public just to see how people would react AND pull them into a moment of presence?
Same idea, but it's been going on for four years...
Hi, my name is Tex Allen and I've been wearing a Nose in public for the last four years, everyday, as a walking billboard for LOVE.
Everytime someone asks me, ""Why The Nose?" I hand them a Nose and tell them, "Just to make people happy!"
I've handed out over 28,000 Noses so far :)
Wanna know more?
http://www.whythenose.com
PS: I was recently in NYC the same week Clownify was covered, installing my version of this at Gallery151 is Chelsea and I had really hoped the artist might just happen by so I could hand him a Nose and take his photo...adding him to the 4000+ snapshots I've taken around the world.
Good job Clownify!
Regards -
Tex Allen
http://www.facebook.com/sftex
k_m — March 28, 2014
I don't think it really works for the women in the ads, considering they're already inherently "clownified" by the media. The clown noses just makes them look more child-like, which kind of defeats the purpose of this whole endeavor (i.e. of putting a twist on the original message).
Links That Tickled Me – A blog by Richie LeDonne — March 28, 2014
[…] Clownifying Ads […]
Taylor — July 25, 2014
In a way it almost draws more attention to the ads. I like the idea of putting a sticker that says "Objectification" "Racism" "Sexism" etc or just all together blackening out the ads. This would be more likely to make a point.