Blog Prompt: Havidol
PLEASE ANSWER BY POSTING COMMENTS.
Discuss your reaction to "Havidol" by artist Justine Cooper.
http://havidol.com
What do you think Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder is? What is the artist Justine Cooper critiquing? Why do you believe she has created such a convincingly real web site - and how does that impact her message?
Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Order is what people have that don't feel like they are happy, no matter how blessed they are. Justine Cooper is critiquing a problem in our society that occurs when people have everything they need to live a happy life and yet still fine something to complain about. She is critiquing how ungrateful people are in America. I believe she has created such a real-looking website because she believes that soon, there will actually be a drug for this due to the amount of people that suffer from it. This impacts her message because it makes the viewer realize how crazy it is that something so absurd could actually become a thing. I thought this website was funny but also very impacting because it made me realize how many people actually have this disorder.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree!
DeleteJustine Cooper is critiquing society's expectation to always want for more happiness. In the world we live in, it almost seems impossible to be truly happy because there is always something that someone wishes to change. I think the website is very comical and a drug like this will probably exist within the next few decades. It looks like a true ad for a prescription drug. I also think the artist is critiquing how doctors can always find something wrong with their patients. There are very few people in the world who have never been diagnosed with a condition or a disease. We are slowly becoming more and more medicated as generations become older.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very creative way to point out the excessive need for more that our society has created in current day. I also think that Mr. Cooper is also touching on the topic of over-prescribing people in the age when we have a medication for almost everything. I think the website was done well, in the respect that at first glance it looks very real and legit. The more you look, the more comical and deep the site touches. My favorite part of the website was the video testimonials of the man and the woman. The both just pop up out of the fake water and give these extremely fake and overly dramatic stories and if you listen carefully the "fine print" at the end of the video's speaks volumes as well. His focus on not only today's need for more more more, but to the excessive medicating as well. Even the name of the drug "Havidol" or "Have-it-all" and the slogan "when more is never enough" speak strongly to the point as well. I enjoyed the website and I thought he did good at hiding a kind-of dark idea, in a upbeat and glossed over commercial site.
ReplyDeleteThe critique is that no matter how blessed or happy a person's life is, there is always a sense of anxiety or depression about their life. The play on words "Havidol" "Have it all" is humorous to me, and there are more types of these little bits the more you read and search the site. The fact that it looks like a legit website and the product is so real looking shows that she believes this is a real problem in society, and soon there might actually be real solution for this.
ReplyDeleteLooking at this website, I feel like a lot of people can relate to Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder. In other words, a lot of people have ADHD and they, to me, sound very similar. This Havidol medicine makes it seem like you can "Have it All" when you take it. I think this website is very real-looking especially since there "Important Safety Information." It makes the medicine seem like it is a real medication. Also, i think the point of the medicine is supported well throughout the website, I think she describes the medicine well enough so that the viewer can learn about what DSACDAD actually is. The point of this medicine is to give people a sense of well-being and be able to enjoy challenges of our high paced culture. I commend Justine Cooper for this very realistic website.
ReplyDeleteI think think Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder is (obviously a fake medical term) that feeling that everyone gets when analyzing their success in life. I hear people say that they feel like life is never going how it should, especially when checking Facebook and seeing their friends getting apartments, cars, getting married, getting jobs, and starting families. Justine Cooper is critiquing this feeling of inadequacy since it has almost become akin to living in today's world. I think she has created such a convincingly real web site as a form of satire to discuss a complex issue. I believe that impact wise it is well-done since I could actually see people wanting to buy this. This site serves as a great commentary on the fact that too often people look for something else to complete them rather than addressing how complete they already are as a whole person. Life may not be predictable or what one desires, but life is life and to not live it waiting to be perfect would be a tragedy.
ReplyDeleteJustine Cooper's Havidol site is incredibly detailed and realistic. Each description paragraph is composed just like the fine print at the bottom of any real medication ad, with notes of sarcasm that highlight the point of her entire "Have it all" drug. Cooper is critiquing the modern societal attitude that "enough is never enough". That's exactly what DSACDAD is: selfish dissatisfaction with one's 'first-world' life.
ReplyDeleteDSACDAD is a disorder affecting those who want even more than what they have now. I think Justine is critiquing American society's obsession with excess and the futile attempt in obtaining perfection. I also saw her satirizing the pharmaceutical industry becoming more commercialized. The first thing that came to mind when seeing how comparable the website is to actual medication websites is how fake the real medication websites are. Essentially the entire purpose of a real medication's website is to persuade potential clients to prescribe to their medicine. It seems shallow to me in the sense that the pharmaceutical industry is more concerned with their profit than healing. I think its unsettling, and totally adds to her message.
ReplyDeleteI think the disorder is a mindset in which having what you currently have is not enough, nor is getting more of what you want ever going to satisfy you. I think she is critiquing the current social issue of people constantly wanting to be "the best" and receiving attention for every milestone or success, and also perhaps measuring that success in material gains. Her site is convincingly real because she wants the issue to be taken seriously, yet is satirically claiming that medication is the solution for this trend. Also, not sure if this is a coincidence but the medication name HAVIDOL, when I read it in my head sounds like "have it all," as in you can't have it all/everything you want.
ReplyDelete