“It refers to the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. Subvertisements may take the form of a new image or an alteration to an existing image or icon, often in a satirical manner.” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvertising
Subversive advertising is rarely the advertisements you encounter day to day but there are tons of adverts which take a twist of an original and give it the opposite meaning. They tend to be extreme and make people think about what is actually being advertised at them.
Adbusters is an activist group who focus on spreading their message of anti-consumerism and pro-environment. They have a magazine, organise their own campaign and feature spoof ads.
Guerilla Girls are “feminist masked avengers” who “expose sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture with facts, humour and outrageous visuals.” (http://www.guerrillagirls.com/index.shtml)
Examples:
From www.adbsuters.org
This adbuster carries a strong message of what alcohol adverts are persuading audiences to buy. Instead of attracting the audience it aims to repulse them.
From http://www.guerrillagirls.com
This Guerrilla Girls campaign is to make people realise how little of the art in museum’s is made by women but features naked females. The message is direct and attention-grabbing to get the message straight across.
From https://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd
Buy Nothing Christmas and Buy Nothing Day are campaigns ran by Adbusters to protest against consumerism. They try to not only get people to change their buying habits for a day but forever.
Exploring Creative Advertising Processes 