John Leslie 5/5/2011
Breaking Down Adbusters
The magazine that I have selected to write this essay on is Adbusters, It was my first time reading
this magazine and I found it to be interesting. The articles in the magazine are of all different genres
ranging from the government to the war in the Middle East and even as random as Ronald McDonald
getting stolen because of Americans revolting towards the food being unhealthy. One thing I noticed
about all of the articles is that picture that they use to try and draw the reader in. For example there is an
article called “Revolution in America” which is about how all of America’s money is controlled by
celebrities, super-consumers and sinister bankers. The picture that is related to it is a picture of the
Lincoln memorial with an American flag over Lincolns head and instead of stars there are company
logos. That is only one of the interesting drawings and pictures that are used to symbolize each article.
My favorite article in the magazine was written by Kalle Hasn Called “Which way is America
Heading.” In the article Hasn talks about Us foreign policy and asks the reader about a few topics like
why does America have one thousand military bases, stations and outposts. She asks why our troops are
on 175 of the 192 member states of the United Nations and why even though the United States is in debt
why do we spend all of our money on the military instead of to paying back what is owed. America
spends more money on their military then any of the other nations of the world combined. Hasn Then
goes on to talk about if we are just afraid and because of it America has to control everything. The
drawing that goes along with the article has two roads, down one of the roads it’s colorful and new
looking and down the other road is black and white. At the dark road there is a sign saying “Same Old
Shit” and down the colorful road there is a sign that says “Crazy New Shit.” I believe that the artist of
this picture wants the dark road to symbolize the United States continuing to feed the war and not trying
anything new to get out of this slump that we are currently in. The colorful road symbolizes the United
States trying something new and stopping the war and hopefully it will all work out for the better.
The article named “A Last Goodbye”, written by Kono Matsu, explains the increasing rates of
kidnapped “Ronnies” in the United States. According to the article, In 1963 Ronald McDonald broke
John Leslie 5/5/2011
every rule in advertising when he stunned children by speaking to them directly by saying, “Here I am
kids. Hey, isn’t watching TV fun? Especially when you got delicious McDonald’s hamburgers. I know
we’re going to be friends too ‘cause I like to do everything boys and girls like to do. Especially when it
comes to eating those delicious McDonald’s hamburgers.” Obviously, this quote from a McDonald’s
commercial makes every little kid want one of those famous, but fatty, hamburgers. Since this
advertisement made by Ronald McDonald many people have become obese and the rate of Diabetes is
increasing rapidly. Many people are taking this very seriously. As I said before, the rate of “Ronnies” has
increased and this advertisement is being blamed for it. For example, groups like the Food Liberation
Army have been a part of this movement. The author, Kono Matsu, explained how many people call it
vandalism. However, many of the kidnappers call it citizen justice. In the article there are many
interesting photos of the famous Ronald McDonald. The first one shows a blurry Ronald McDonald with
a voice bubble above his head stating the quote that was mentioned in the beginning of this paragraph.
Across Ronald McDonald’s body in black letters it says “Your Imaginary Friend”. Another advertising
technique to make it seem like Ronald is your friend. The other photo shown in the article was a picture
of Ronald hanging from a rope around his neck from a tree. This shows what one group had done to
Ronald McDonald after they kidnapped him. This article really interested me as I read it. I was never
aware of how many people felt so strongly towards McDonald’s false advertising.Adbusters does a really good job at placing the right images with articles. By doing this they
hope to catch people’s eyes and make them read it. Besides the pictures the magazine wasn’t really what I thought it would be considering it’s a graphic design course. The articles were all about politics the war and other modern news. The only part that was related to the course was the [pictures relating to the
articles.