A multitude of issues such as consumerism, globalization, political issues and many others motivates the culture jamming movement and employs a wide range of tactics, and embodies numerous organizations and individual activists (Cammaerts, 2007). The accepted idea among scholars is that culture jamming is about exhibiting subverted or counter-messages in an alternative manner, within a mainstream context. A well knows advocate of culture jamming and founder of the Adbusters Media foundation, Kalle Lasn (1999), simply states that “corporations advertise. Culture jammers subvertise” (131). There is some debate about whether culture jammers constitute a “proper” social movement—that question, while important, is beyond the scope of this thesis.
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Culture jamming can take several forms as their strategy of resistance. The first and most common takes the role of the “subvertisement.” Aiming at large corporations, these anti-advertisements are parodies of popular advertising campaigns that mimic “the look and feel of the target ad, prompting the classic double take as viewers realize what they’re seeing is in fact the very opposite of what they expected” (Lasn, 1999: 131). In altering or ‘’jamming’’ the advertisement, culture jammers use text and images aimed to shock or disgust consumers (Sandlin & Callahan, 2009). Their intention is to grab public attention and to shed light on the dishonesty and ubiquity of advertising and brands in order to raise critical consciousness. Pointed out by Harold (2007), for this strategy to be effective in any way, the jammer must keep the original form of the brand identity or advertisement closely intact, while at the same time, altering the content.She argues that he power of the parody advertisement, lies in the “recognizability of the ubiquitous brands they target” …show more content…
Virtual protests are a way to help people find creative ways of protesting. Last but not the least, consumer boycotts are another way that culture jammers illustrate their resistance. For example, Adbusters Media Foundation (AMF) has promoted ‘Buy Nothing Day,’ for numerous years. It is a yearly event that urges citizens to resist purchasing for one day every year. This event appropriately takes place on “Black Friday,” the first shopping day after American Thanksgiving, which is by tradition the busiest shopping day of the year in the US (Budd, Craig, and Steinmann, 1999). The AMF also promotes similar activities that represent boycotting of consumerism, including the “Credit Card Cut Up” where participants stand in shopping malls and offer to cut up people’s credit cards in response to expensive interest rates and rising debt; the “Zombie Walk,” a long march of activists dressed as zombies walking around shopping malls, representing the role of a spectator that consumerism assigns; and “Whirl-Mart,” where people gather together and walk around a store with shopping carts in a huge line but refusing to buy anything (https://www.adbusters.org/ campaigns/bnd).
Culture jamming can take several forms as their strategy of resistance. The first and most common takes the role of the “subvertisement.” Aiming at large corporations, these anti-advertisements are parodies of popular advertising campaigns that mimic “the look and feel of the target ad, prompting the classic double take as viewers realize what they’re seeing is in fact the very opposite of what they expected” (Lasn, 1999: 131). In altering or ‘’jamming’’ the advertisement, culture jammers use text and images aimed to shock or disgust consumers (Sandlin & Callahan, 2009). Their intention is to grab public attention and to shed light on the dishonesty and ubiquity of advertising and brands in order to raise critical consciousness. Pointed out by Harold (2007), for this strategy to be effective in any way, the jammer must keep the original form of the brand identity or advertisement closely intact, while at the same time, altering the content.She argues that he power of the parody advertisement, lies in the “recognizability of the ubiquitous brands they target” …show more content…
Virtual protests are a way to help people find creative ways of protesting. Last but not the least, consumer boycotts are another way that culture jammers illustrate their resistance. For example, Adbusters Media Foundation (AMF) has promoted ‘Buy Nothing Day,’ for numerous years. It is a yearly event that urges citizens to resist purchasing for one day every year. This event appropriately takes place on “Black Friday,” the first shopping day after American Thanksgiving, which is by tradition the busiest shopping day of the year in the US (Budd, Craig, and Steinmann, 1999). The AMF also promotes similar activities that represent boycotting of consumerism, including the “Credit Card Cut Up” where participants stand in shopping malls and offer to cut up people’s credit cards in response to expensive interest rates and rising debt; the “Zombie Walk,” a long march of activists dressed as zombies walking around shopping malls, representing the role of a spectator that consumerism assigns; and “Whirl-Mart,” where people gather together and walk around a store with shopping carts in a huge line but refusing to buy anything (https://www.adbusters.org/ campaigns/bnd).