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
I really enjoyed watching these videos. I completely agree that media images of food attract audiences to their restaurants by selling not food BUT self-esteem, masculinity, sex, etc. Two ads that especially popped out at me during the second video was the one with all the men singing which was discussed in Ecofeminism last year about the crisis of masculinity. Burgers, beef, fatty meats, etc. are advertised for 'manly men' who want to get their freedom from women who are forcing salads into their bellies! Also, the ad with the woman sitting on the stoop while 'making love' to the burger is ridiculous! No one east like that, and again who are the burger companies trying to reach with this ad? It's men of course! Not only are they using sex to sell a greasy burger but they are also selling the image of a 'loose' woman (she was eating with her legs spread wide apart, and hiking her skirt up) and therefore degrading women to mere objects who love meat in their mouth (exactly), and also promoting heterosexual images. Commercials like these among many others, attract audiences by promoting negative, normalized images of women and men instead of using the product to sell itself! (perhaps a greasy hamburger can't sell itself unless its being fondled by a sexy woman, or being worshiped by a group of masculine men?)
ReplyDelete-Dougie
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ReplyDeleteYup. Famous and wonderful international chef Padma Lakshmi just loves "the Western bacon". It reminds her of when she was "in high school" sneaking out and doing bad things [I'm not even going to bother breaking that one down].
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Jan covered the sexism/hamburger thing in Ecofeminism - there's been a lot of great work on it. Manly men: die younger bad eating crappy food, that is oddly sexualized. There's a whole area of masculinities literature that examines how guys are encouraged to engage in risk behaviour in order to prove their manhood. Which is why so many more men than women die young/er.
Oh, and for more on the burger/sexism connection, see Sara Haskins' Target Women "Carl's Jr" clip.
Good finds!
The Doctor
I agree there are alot of goups/organizations out there doing culture jamming but always nice to focus on individuals trying to make a statement!
ReplyDeleteBakerella
Do you ever notice how McDonald's advertisements in the media show physically fit, thin, youthful people eating their products?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6b2ndXIvA4&feature=related
I think this video does a horrible job in advertising their product. To me, this symbolizes McDonald's as an addiction of some sort. Watch out thin, youthful, physically fit young man, if you keep eating those hot fudge sundaes, you may not be eligible to appear as an endorsement for McDonald's ever again..
Seraph of the Rose