Kalle Lasn/Bill Schmalz and The Adbusters Media Foundation

BBloggin’ had mentioned the website adbusters.org in an earlier post, and when I was researching culture jamming it seemed to come up quite often. I decided to look further into what this website was really all about and found some very interesting details.

Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz came together in Vancouver BC to challenge consumerism. These cofounders are activists who created the The Adbusters Media Foundation. This foundation published a magazine that is trying to stand up to large corporations and their media messages. They believe these big corporations have too much power over society and making the people feel unsatisfied with themselves. They use culture jamming to show corporations how ridiculous they are being through use of their magazine, ad spoofs, videos and more.

I decided to include a more detailed quote from their website (www.adbusters.org) because it generally summarizes what this group set out to do:  “Our mission is to cut through the fog of mental pollution, changing the way information flows in our society. With incisive philosophical thrusts, activist commentaries and visual mindbombs from around the world, we want to enlighten you, enrage you and enlist you in creating a new future. We hope Adbusters is a kick in the head, a life changing epiphany and a compelling call to arms.”

This group has posted some great ad spoofs on their website in the areas where they feel culture jamming is really necessary to get a point across.

This “organized crime” spoof tries to educate the public by letting them know that these big corporations are just after your money. The logos are giving the corporations some bad public relations and letting society in on the secret that money is what they are after. People could carry on with or without these big brand names.

This ad spoof is saying ‘Hey Apple, why would we spend so much money on your new electronics when there are people who don’t have enough money to buy food?’. Adbusters is letting society know that their money could be better spent and that an iPad isn’t going to bring you true happiness.

This one’s trying to say 'your smarter than to fall for GAPS advertising techniques'. You look fine without their brand named clothing. Don't let them trick you into believing you need thier brand name to give you high social status.

Another great part about Adbusters is that they started several campaigns using the culture jamming tool. One is called “Buy Nothing Day”. They encourage everyone annually on November 25^th to purchase nothing! A short description on the site is “With catastrophic climate change looming, we the rich one billion people on the planet have to consume less! And if that's too extreme for grandma and the kids, try for a Buy Less Christmas. And maybe a buy local, buy fairer, buy indie Christmas. Whatever you decide, 'tis the season to reclaim our year-end celebrations and make them our own again.”

http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd  (campaign page)

I think this holiday is an awesome way to culture jam. It is showing mainstream media that we shouldn’t need all their ‘stuff’. The Christmas holidays have become more about marketing and advertising each year. Corporations prepare all year for this season. Pressure is put on everyone to shop shop shop and buy buy buy. It is making people feel as if they are bad parents if they can’t afford all the new toys the companies say your kid must have.

I find this type of campaign really needs publicity in order to make a substantial difference. This social media age may help thought. I saw this “buy nothing day” advertised as an event on Facebook and Twitter. Large corporations want no part in supporting this day because it goes against what they preach to society. Adbusters’s ad for “Buy Nothing Day” was rejected from mainstream media. Scroll down to “TV Spot” and listen to some of the rejections Adbusters received from MTV, CTV and ABC. These networks claim large corporations and their advertisements are their major support. All the more reason to use culture jamming and show how ridiculous media has become!

This video lets us meet with Kalle Lasn! He also talks about this Buy Nothing Day.

He wants people to understand the consequences of over consumption. Society needs this type of education. 

The last area I found really interesting was their videos. We have seen a few culture jamming videos on this blog but here is one about standing up to Starbucks, which happened to be one of my favorite places in the past! They use culture jamming to educate society and suggest we ‘shift the power’ to local coffee shops run by ‘neighbors and friends’. Society needs to be educated so they know exactly what they are supporting by purchasing the large corporations products’. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qejG3U2usp0

Well what do you think of Adbusters efforts? I feel they are developing into a very powerful activist group. They are educating society through the use of many culture jamming tools. Spreading the word is exactly what needs to be done. Good job Adbusters. 

-Goldilocks

MmMmMmm.....burgers

I found this video on uTube and found it interesting. When I was looking for culture jamming groups, i was looking for websites of actually organizations that do culture jams. But when I found this, I realized that individuals also do this sort of thing. I thought it was really cool to see people standing up for what they believe in, and seeing how the public responded to them voicing their opinions. It was also neat to see how much some people appreciated them taking the time to "enlighten" people and show them the true side of things. Although, i wasnt surprised to see that many people just walked passed and paid no mind. The world today is full of people running around in a big rush, and thats why many people go to Mcdonalds for food, because it is fast. Also, its not every day that you would see three young adults standing outside of the restaurant, voicing their opinions. I think that it would be cool to see, and to observe the reactions of the public and hear what they have to say too.

With that said, it brings up the topic of obesity and the way that it is brought into the media. We all know that it is a major problem in society and the rates of it are increasing. But why does the media make it okay, and use ads and products to deliever the message that eating food from a fast food company, will (in the end) make you happy. Its funny actually how happy people look in commercials to take that first bite out of a greasy burger. Myself how ever, im going to eat my burger and not make love to it. Which is exactly the way that the commercials and ads make it look. In my opinion, its weird!

Here is another video that i found, that sort of shows what i mean.....

let me know what you think..
tm-blogger

Introducing barbies and bubbles

      I had success in finding not one but two culture jamming groups that I believe do an incredible job at disrupting mainstream consumerist culture, and in turn sending a powerful message out to the masses. 
      The first one is called the "Barbie Liberation Organization" or the BLO. They were founded in 1989 but did not gain much publicity until four years later in '93. Their goal was simple, they wanted to change up the gender stereotypes present in children's toys. How did they go about doing this? Well when they realized the similarities in the voice hardware for "Teen Talk Barbie" and "Talking Duke G.I Joe" they researched a way to switch the voice controls inside the dolls. Therefore they went to return the modified dolls, and instead of Barbie shouting "Math is Hard" or "I love shopping", children who bought the altered toy now had Barbie saying rather violent things like "Venegence is mine". Likewise with the G.I. Joe 'action figures', instead of saying things like "Dead men tell no lies", he now was saying "Let's plan our dream wedding" or "Lets go to the beach!". Of course it should also be noted that on the back of these toys a sticker was strategically placed that read "Call your Local TV News". All of this information can be found on sniggle.net, and above find the video for the BLO (it is quite entertaining). The only thing that is slightly unfortunate is that this culture jamming group was active nearly 20 years ago.

      A second culture jamming group that I found is a group called the "Bubble Project". They have their own website at www.thebubbleproject.com and can also be found on Facebook with a page that viewers can 'like'. Basically what this culture jamming group does is transform corporate advertisements into fun, silly conversation places. First launched by a gentleman named Ji Lee, he printed out nearly 15,000 dialogue bubbles, and posted them all over the globe. I highly suggest going on and looking at some of the photos posted on the Bubble Project website. Not all of the snapshots are as good at making a comment on consumerist society as others, however there are a few that do an extraordinary job.

According to the website, the group purpose reads as follows:

"Our communal spaces are being overrun with ads. Train stations, streets, squares, buses, and subways now scream one message after another at us. Once considered "public", these spaces are increasingly being seized by corporations to propagate their messages. We the public, are both target and victim of this media attack.
The Bubble Project instantly transform these annoying corporate monologues into open public dialogues. They encourage anyone to fill them in with any expression, free from censorship. More Bubbles mean more freed spaces, more sharing of personal thoughts, more reactions to current events, and most importantly, more imagination and fun."

The great thing about this culture jamming group is that it is still fully active, and takes place not only in North America but all over the world!
Hopefully this should get some brains thinking and conversation rolling!

Cheers
The Veiled Interpreter

The Interwebs is a series of tubes

I am an internet nerd, I thrive upon nerd culture, i dress up as a various video game characters for conventions, and generally participate fully within the revelry of the internet and its many outlets nerd couture. One such element of my nerd culture is my deep investment within the internet, especially within the facets of various blogging and photo based message boards. It is in this facet that I see ourselves as culture jammers. We, the sheep that have been bred to live up to these cultural norms are using images and humour to defy the culture by which we have been created. We have accomplished this with things known as ‘internet memes’ a term meaning ‘an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture’. Deriving from the Greek word meaning ‘mimieme’ meaning ‘to imitate’ and it is in my belief that these little glimpses into the real thoughts of us as a collective and are individual pieces of culture jam culture floating about on desktops worldwide.

A typical meme is something that imitates a real world action, and often puts to image the real ideas and points of view that society has.

 A typical meme is something that imitates a real world action, and often puts to image the real ideas and points of view that society has.

This pose is a typical one that is found in many a facebook picture album. These photos, both examples of internet memes, point out the obvious idiocy of the pose itself, and call into question with a quick quip why this face is pulled off more readily then a smiling face photograph. We are becoming the nation of ‘duck faces’.

The internet also tends to make wildy critical remarks at politics and other such worldly issues. We have created our own social commentary within the society itself, and thus have begun our own movement. We are creating our own brand of culture jamming, and it is inevitably giving us power to see the control by which we are ruled by. And is allowing us to bring up, the next generation of cultural aware individuals. 

Until next time!

The Sushi Warrior

Photos for Thought

As I continue to thoroughly search for a culture jamming group, I stumbled across a few photos that I believe scream in loud volumes. Take a look at these photos I appropriately titled "Photos for Thought" that tie in with the idea of culture jamming.




The Veiled Interpreter