The effect culture jamming has on Western culture can, to me at least, only be viewed as positive. Each day we are bombarded with advertisements. Billboards while driving, posters on street poles, television ads and now it’s even standard to see product placement in our favourite TV shows and movies. Remember Tom Hanks’ film Castaway? That was one 2 and a bit hour ad for FedEx. A story about a dedicated employee doing everything he can to survive and in the end delivering the package to the customer. We have come to accept this and move along with daily life, mostly ignoring or not noticing the ever present hold that the power brokers have on our landscape.
I am not saying that we are passive to the effects of mainstream media. We interpret their messages and make assumptions of our own. But, there are those who take a more active stance and are far more critical of the powerbrokers than most. These people fight for moral virtues held by the community that the mainstream seems to flout. They are called ‘culture jammers’. One of the most prominent culture jammers is Kalle Lasn, the founder of Adbusters Magazine. He scribed a manifesto (found at bottom of post) outlining the goal of the jammers. The anti-capitalist and anti-consumerism movement gives the public a much needed break from the corporations that rule our lives.
This legitimate form of non-violent protest has proved effective in changing organisational policy. Nike is my favourite example. After it was released that Nike was using child labour to make their products, the culture jammers took it on and made a stand. The use of sweatshop labour does not fit in well with Western values. Nike received, and still is today, much criticism for their work practices. Billboards were changed and advertisements were converted to subvertisements. The culture jammers retain the original image and then transform it to something less propagandistic and more damning.
After all the criticism the resulting PR campaign began to emphasise the efforts they are putting into changing their work practices, such as fair pay, fair hours etc. This was a great success for the jammers. Though they were not fully responsible for the policy change they did, however, provide platforms in which to inform the consumer about the origins of their favourite sneaker.
What culture jamming does is makes us stop for a second and understand that the powerbrokers only tell you the things you want to hear. You won’t hear them talk about the cheap 10 year old child in
Culture Jammers Manifesto
We will take on the
archetypal mind polluters
and beat them at their
own game.
We will uncool their
billion-dollar brands
with uncommercials
on TV, subvertisements
in magazines and anti-ads
right next to theirs in
the urban landscape.
We will seize control of
the roles and functions
that corporations play
in our lives and set new
agendas in their industries.
We will jam the pop-culture
marketeers and bring their
image factory to a sudden,
shuddering halt.
On the rubble of the old
culture, we will build a new
one with a non-commercial
heart and soul.
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