Subvertising (aportmanteau ofsubvert andadvertising) is the practice of making spoofs orparodies ofcorporate andpoliticaladvertisements.[1] The cultural criticMark Dery coined the term in 1991.[2] Subvertisements are anti-ads that deflect advertising's attempts to turn the people's attention in a given direction.[3] According to authorNaomi Klein, subvertising offers a way of speaking back to advertising, ‘forcing a dialogue where before there was only a declaration.’[4] They may take the form of a new image or an alteration to an existing image or icon, often in asatirical manner.[5]
A subvertisement can also be referred to as ameme hack and can be a part ofsocial hacking,billboard hacking orculture jamming.[6] Although he rarely altered physical ads, American performance artistJoey Skaggs' media interventions function as subvertisements. By parodying authoritative narratives and co-opting mass communication tools, he delivers countercultural messages which align with subvertising's intent to disrupt and critique dominant cultural messages using the very channels that propagate them.[7]
According toAdbusters, aCanadian magazine and a proponent of counter-culture and subvertising, "A well-produced 'subvert' mimics the look and feel of the targeted ad, promoting the classic 'double-take' as viewers suddenly realize they have been duped. Subverts createcognitive dissonance, with the apparent aim of cutting through the 'hype and glitz of our mediated reality' to reveal a 'deeper truth within'.[citation needed]
Subvertising is a type ofadvertising hijacking (détournement publicité), wheredétournement techniques developed in the 1950s by the FrenchLetterist International and later used by the better-knownSituationist International have been used as a contemporary critical form to re-route advertising messages.
In 1972, the logo of Richard Nixon's re-election campaign posters was subverted with two x's in Nixon's name (as in theExxon logo) to suggest the corporate ownership of the Republican Party.[8][9]
InSydney,Australia in October 1979, a group of anti-smoking activists formed a group calledB.U.G.A.U.P. and began altering the text on tobacco billboards to subvert the messages of tobacco advertisers, although advertisements for other unhealthy products were also targeted.[10][11]
On November 6, 2008,The Yes Men recruited thousands of social activists to hand out 100,000 copies of a spoofNew York Times newspaper set six months in the future.[12] The goal was to utilize a tangible and trusted medium, theNew York Times, to argue for a particular future, in that case, one where theIraq War had ended. Other groups involved with this project includedAnti-Advertising Agency,Code Pink,United for Peace and Justice,May First/People Link, andImprov Everywhere.[citation needed]
At the 2015 Paris COP21 climate conference, the collective known asBrandalism installed 600 posters that attacked what they perceived as the hypocrisy of corporate sponsors.[13]
In 2017, Brandalism and other groups of subvertisers founded the collective Subvertisers International.[14] Using billboard hacking and other forms of subvertising, they promote the idea that advertising creates unhealthy body images, impacts democracy negatively, and sustains a culture ofconsumerism that takes a heavy toll on the planet.
Around 2018, a group in London called Legally Black changed the race of the characters in Harry Potter posters from white to black.[13]
In 2022, billboards in London, Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield, Brighton, and 11 other European cities, were hijacked to highlight the role of airline emissions in theclimate crisis. They highlighted the largecarbon footprint of flying, that the majority of flights are taken by a tiny fraction of the total population, and that airlines have missed all but one of the industry’s self-imposedsustainability targets.[15]
In January 2025, German police began investigating the distribution of political fliers from the far‑rightAlternative für Deutschland party that closely resembled airline tickets and targeted "illegal immigrants". The fliers were placed in the mailboxes of people living in immigrant areas.Karlsruhe criminal police said they are seeking "persons unknown on suspicion of incitement of racial hatred".[16]
