Let's Kick Ads!: Round Five of the Schmios

On April 12, the fifth annual Schmio Awards delivered a swift kick in the ads. Spoofing the advertising industry's Clio Awards, the Schmios honored not the savviest, not the sexiest, but this year's most crass, offensive and egregious ads. Sponsored by New York University's Department of Culture and Communication and hosted by media critic and NYU professor Mark Crispin Miller, the Schmios did their usual service: bedeviling seemingly innocuous ads, taking them out of context and offering subversive contrasts.

Organized around the theme of "Advertising as a Drug," the show opened with a clip from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The audience watched as Kubrick's apes confront the monolith, become agitated and begin to evolve. Cut to a 2001 Kentucky Fried Chicken ad. Not the dawn of man exactly: two befuddled young men recline in a convertible, eat chicken sandwiches and "contemplate" the vast expanse of stars. Replacing the monolith is a giant KFC sign. Miller juxtaposed these two visuals to show that commercial art (like film) can indeed expand your mind; but advertising encourages mind "contraction."

"This is not opening the doors of perception, it's nailing them shut," quipped Miller. Advertising, with its spectacle and speed, has become a too-familiar drug. We're dazzled by advertising and agitated to distraction. Instead of "evolving," as Kubrick would have it, we consume. Each year, the Schmio Awards set out to expose this pattern.

The opening Schmio was awarded by social critic Barbara Ehrenreich to Eli Lilly's Sarafem, a "new" drug for a "new" illness: Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). Critiquing the direct-to-consumer drug ads, Ehrenreich asked if there were any doctors in the house: "If you want to heal the sick today," she jibed, "go into advertising."

The Sarafem campaign depicts women on the verge of a nervous breakdown under the pressures of everyday frustrations: a wobbly shopping cart, jeans that don't fit. Sarafem, aka fluoxetine, aka Prozac (aka "Prozac in Drag," as Ehrenreich put it), was designed to treat depression. But Eli Lilly received FDA approval to sell Prozac under the name Sarafem, arguing the name change would "help with educational efforts for this largely unrecognized disorder while reducing confusion about the differences between depression and PMDD." The ads position PMS as a medical, treatable disorder and, in doing so, pathologize emotional swings, self-doubt and daily stress. Ehrenreich deftly critiqued the ads and offered a challenge: "Don't take a pill. Honor your bitchiness and use it to fight back."

Joe Conason (of Salon.com and co-author of The Hunting of the President) presented a Schmio to a group called Republicans for Clean Air. Conason showed an attack ad aimed at New York Republicans that made then-Governor Bush look like the benevolent friend of the environment and McCain look like the devil. The Schmios audience guffawed at the Governor Bush ad for clean air. "You'd think he's John Muir himself," said Conason.

But the images of weekenders with canoes and blue skies edited together with a smiling Dubya were not Conason's point. The 30-second spot denigrating McCain's record and lauding Bush's "outstanding environmentalism" was paid for by Republicans for Clean Air, a group that spent $2 million on air time. Conason's punchline? Since the organization was a front for pro-Bush Republicans, Conason called this Schmio "The Willie Horton Achievement Award for Most Revolting Campaign Commercial" -- a reference to an inflammatory ad put together by a phony front group during Bush Sr.'s presidential run.

Village Voice media critic Leslie Savan followed with an equally damning presentation. She awarded a Schmio to Budweiser for its ubiquitous "Whasssuup!" campaign. First Savan showed the original "Whasssuup!" ad, featuring several black guys hanging out, watching the game, bonding over the "Whasssuup?!"/"True" call and response. Then she showed the second ad in the series, which depicts non-black yuppie nerds attempting their own slang: "How are YOU doing?!" they say. The spot ends with two black men from the first commercial watching the second commercial with bewildered expressions.