Ads are ubiquitous. Contemporary media-savvy audiences know that one-third of a half-hour sitcom will be commercials, that magazines will contain more ads than articles, and that they will be bombarded with Internet ads. The pervasiveness of advertising has created viewers who are: "increasingly media literate, cynical and alienated... and as the number of advertisements continues to increase (disorder), advertising has undermined its own effectiveness by unintentionally denying the ability and desire of spectators to respond" (Goldman and Papson, 83). Advertisers have appropriated this postmodern discourse on alienation, giving it a sign value that they can attribute to their product. Alienation consequently becomes a means by which advertisers can differentiate their product; consumers can claim to distance themselves from consumer culture and individualize themselves by purchasing the product thus advertised (87). It is ironic that viewers who distrust the simulacrum of advertising are offered a discourse on the world of advertising as a substitute for authenticity (101) that would likely end their alienation. The print advertisements examined in this essay reflexively recognize and highlight the superficiality of the fashion industry and the commodity culture of which it is an integral part, thus excusing the product's attractiveness on the basis of its fashionability. Judith Williamson states that “one can understand what advertisements mean only by discovering how they mean” (Williamson, 42). In other words, one must understand the process of signification through which an advertisement transfers signs from cultural meaning systems to its product. According to semiologist Roland Barthes, this process of signification involves three... halves of the paper... growing advertising disorder, consumers have become tired and alienated. Advertisers have appropriated this widespread and cynical media literacy, employing discourses of alienation from consumer culture and advertising to differentiate their products. Advertisers offer a thoughtful discourse on the world of advertising and commodity culture as a substitute for authenticity that would end consumer alienation. The advertisements discussed in this essay reflexively recognize and highlight the frivolity and banality of the fashion industry, its marketing techniques and the consumer culture of which it is an integral part, in order to excuse and support the attractiveness of their product based on his style. Ironically, this reflexive advertising distances consumers further from any sense of authenticity and only increases feelings of alienation and cynicism..