TheAdGenerator.org - Fascinating Ad Creations

The Ad Generator is an interesting site. It mashes up the words of real corporate slogans to generate invented slogans. Then it pairs those invented slogans with related images from Flickr. The creator wanted to demonstrate the power and manipulation of the consumer through advertisements and images. He also wanted to point out the often disassociation the slogan has with the product. It becomes super clear that advertisers really only want to evoke a feeling, which then provokes you to buy their product. A quick browse through the generated images/slogans is quite powerful, if only because you see how almost any word coupling with a powerful image hits you emotionally (and then likely subconsciously works to get you to buy their brand/products). I know that Nike's "Just Do It" has to be one of the best and most successful slogans of all time for its high emotional impact.

The ad generator is a generative artwork that explores how advertising uses and manipulates language. Words and semantic structures from real corporate slogans are remixed and randomized to generate invented slogans. The ad generator is a generative artwork that explores how advertising uses and manipulates language. Words and semantic structures from real corporate slogans are remixed and randomized to generate invented slogans. These slogans are then paired with related images from Flickr, thereby generating fake advertisements on the fly. By remixing corporate slogans, I intend to show how the language of advertising is both deeply meaningful, in that it represents real cultural values and desires, and yet utterly meaningless in that these ideas have no relationship to the products being sold. In using the Flickr images, the piece explores the relationship between language and image, and how meaning is constructed by the juxtaposition of the two. The ad generator was created by Alexis Lloyd as a component of an MFA thesis project in the Design and Technology department at Parsons The New School for Design.

This site is fascinating from an advertising and marketing perspective, and certainly from an educational viewpoint. I believe it is a great teaching tool and will be viewed and studied by many high school and college students, if not also by new personnel in the advertising field.

While the site is powerful by itself, any thoughts about expanding its use and review to other educational and school sites? At least some links to other resources and schools of thoughts on advertising?