Not long ago, corporations were paying $10,000 to folks willing to tattoo logos on their person, and Hollywood was considering steaming ads onto its glittering sidewalks. As it stands, Disney sends minions to hospital maternity wards, shoving branded gift baskets at new mothers in the hopes of creating customers literally in the cradle. For those who don't act as walking billboards, there exists a long tradition of spoofing logos and ad campaigns for the purpose of humor or dissent. Known as a “subvert,” these spoofs, according to Canuck culture-jamming magazine Adbusters, mimic “the look and feel of the targeted ad, promoting the classic 'double take' as viewers suddenly realize they have been duped.” In conjunction with the Center for Political Graphics, Cal State Dominguez Hills presents “Subvertisements: Using Ads and Logos as Protest,” a group showcase of 90 posters that take the piss out of images we're all familiar with, from the iPod silhouette to the Marlboro Man, Tide to Warhol's soup cans, transforming them into critiques of globalization, genetically modified foods, sweatshop labor and war.

Mondays-Fridays. Starts: March 21. Continues through April 13, 2011

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