GAP---Spoofed
1- Name & Description
The ad I chose to parody was an ad for a GAP-when you know you have good taste. It featured a woman in office clothes for tops and a skirt for bottom, along with knee socks, but with out any shoes or sandals considering her random choice of dresses; And addition to that she is leaning on to a toilet. As stated it has a really venerable catch phrase to go along with the model, which make it an easy target for a spoof add. I don’t think it’s the most impressive ad, for a world known brand.
2- Why I chose to create a spoof ad of this advertisement- Rationale
I don’t know if this ad is trying to promote GAP, or just decrease their consumers. I say this because, for fact any fashion expert would flip when they see this, as also I bet this wasn’t recommended by a fashion expert, unless he/she was coming up with a design 2 in the morning. The thing that caught my attention was her leaning on the toilet, I mean at that instance I stopped searching and knew what had to be done for the public’s sake. People need to be aware of what they are purchasing, just because it says GAP doesn’t necessarily mean it’s all good, I mean just look at this ad.
3- Describe the things you did and the steps you took to create your new ad.
I decided to keep the scenery/environment the same as it’s already “spoofed” enough and decided to work with the surrounding components like the texts and the shadow. I simply used the text tool to go over the “P” in the word “GAP,” to turn it into “GAG.” I also changed the slogan making “when you have good taste” to “when you have bad taste” to go along with the title. I made another textual change after I made alteration to the shadow. With the shadow I got an image of a woman in bathing suit jumping to make a shadow of her on the sand, so what I did was use the magnetic lasso tool to carefully go around the shadow and then selected it and pasted it onto my spoofed image. And then I outlined the whole gag ad layer without the shadow using the lasso tool to paste it on top of the shadow so it stays behind. I also smudged some of the white leavings off after pasting the layer on top of the shadow. Then I placed the shadow to the bottom of the ad to show that it’s running off, and I also used the smudge tool here to make it clear and neat with the toilet and the GAG lettering. Then for some visual effects and emphasis I gave some flare to the shadow by using the layer properties. Lastly I then put up a phrase on the top right hand side of the page using the text tool saying “Shouldn’t the shadow be your companion?” to support my spoofed ad. I also wrote this phrase twice giving each different color and then put it on top of each other to give it a little shadow effect and it also emphasizes that text. After all these adjustments you get the finish product!
4- If you were to do a similar assignment again, what would you do differently and what would you need to know?
Overall, I think I made a pretty good spoof. It’s funny, and I am glad that I got to get my point across. If I had to do it again, I would try to find another efficient way of interpreting the shadow into the spoof. I would also try to get use of the clone tool, also I would like to work more with the toilet a bit more to make it look more realistic and less messy, because it looks like its drawn now. Providentially, I now have the understanding of Photoshop to effectively use these tools. The one thing I would like to learn about, though, is how to better use layers, because I really had tough time with them this time around. Besides that, I am happy with my accomplishment.
5- Reference:
Gap Original Ad: Magazine – Fashion Weekly
Shadow: Google image searched shadow of a person
