Ad Bites: Toward a Theory of Ironic Advertising
Ekin Pehlivan and Pierre Berthon
Bentley University
Leyland Pitt
Simon Fraser University
INTRODUCTION
Before the presidential elections of 2008, a campaign that featured prominent television and film celebrities was launched on YouTube. It was designed to promote voting among Internet-literate Americans. Rather than encouraging people to vote, however, the celebrities did the opposite: they asked viewers notto vote! The advertisement featured a number of actors (Amy Adams, will.i.am, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Bacon, Halle Berry, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Connolly, Courteney Cox, Ellen DeGeneres, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Jonah Hill,...