Subvertising: la pubblicità contro se stessa

Speaking of semiotics of advertisement, scholars usually focus on the discourses that intercur between a company and the public or on how signification emerges, strictly controlled, in ads and campaigns. In this paper we will explore the panorama of subvertising, namely, all those practices of creative vandalism and détournement against billboards and posters around the world brought forth by collectives and individuals. Acting as a kind of parasites, subvertisers use their semantic weapons to inject new meanings in the advertisement myths. Claiming back the public space of publicity that saturates urban spaces, subvertisers address directly to consumers and their critical mind. Subvertisers act as intrusive enunciators in a discourse of others, overlaying, substituting or destroying completely the former voice. We will explore how this happens from a barthesian perspective, exploring the framework of greimasian narrativity applied to consumption and advertisement. Lastly, we will analyze two practical cases of subvertising revolving around toxic depiction of bodies in advertisement.