Blog Post #1 - Ted Bangs

The above advertisement is a P.E.T.A. support campaign ad, and the subject matter of the ad is quite obviously what makes this particular ad controversial. To a certain degree, a large portion of commercial advertisement hinges its popularity or success probability on the bet that “sex sells”. In this specific case, it was not so much that sex sells as much as it was that sex in this case catches the eyes of the viewers and draws attention to the ad campaign. With the tagline above the image “all animals have the same parts” the reader is somewhat taken back because we as human beings (although technically we are also animals) don’t like to consider ourselves as part of the animal kingdom. We as a species almost believe that we are above that to a certain degree, but this advertisement juxtaposes that comment alongside the body of Pamela Anderson in order to make a point. Their point is to demonstrate that animals are, from a practical and functional point of view, just the same as us. We all have a common denominator in our mortality and that is made especially obvious by the way in which Pamela Anderson’s body is painted. It is painted and sectioned off as if it were a butcher’s guide to extracting meat from a cow.  It is very jarring at first glance, but this image could also be taken in a different way. It could be taken as a type of satire that models and their bodies are objectified in advertisement today, not just by commercial entities but also non-profit organizations like P.E.T.A. that use the models as conduits for their advertisements.