I thought this article was really interesting – it made me snigger aloud in the library, which is never really the done thing, is it? If any of you didn't get round to reading it at all/properly, I urge that you go back and work your way through - it's worth it. Christine Harold provides us with a fairly comprehensive introduction to the ideas behind culture jamming and, more precisely, ‘pranking’. She details some of the major figureheads within this scene over the years, such as ®™ark, BBB and the INFKT Truth campaign, listing the notable achievements they have to their name. She also looks to the past for an overview of the movement, its origins and roots of influence that have led to its current inception. I thought this was a valuable inclusion on her part: it is important to acknowledge the influence of groups such as the Situationist International in the modern day work of these activists. I felt this article could have focused a little more on the politics behind the action - she touches on why they are carrying out these campaigns, but I thought more time could be spent on what the greater issues are. It was interesting to understand why they adopted the various techniques they did, as well as the methods they employ to manipulate te media and therfore retain a sense of power withint he situation. Whilst the media represents a lot of the issues they have a problem with, they recognise the need to work with them in order to spread the message. Perhaps this can be considered a clever reclaiming of an insitution they so vocally disagree with.
I had some thoughts that cropped up as I read the piece, but was concerned about floating off-topic on one of my infamous tangents (I figure you can get away with that a whole lot more in a verbal discussion). I’ll try to stick to the main crux of the issues, but if anyone has ideas that I haven’t mentioned, please throw them in because I thought this article had things to say on a lot of levels.
a) How did you feel about the INFKT campaign? Do you think it’s unusual for a youth antismoking campaign to succeed (I do) and if it did to a certain degree, as Harold suggests, what factors do you think contributed to this?
b) This is possibly where I digress, but it didn’t sit very well with me that they were consciously pushing a product and the correlative reduction in anti-advertising rhetoric on their website. Don’t get me wrong: I actually really liked the shoes and wanted a pair – I get how they do fit with Adbuster’s work, but similarly, their adverts worked and that didn’t quite sit well with me. Have they become their own enemy here? Talk of relocating the site of manufacture (heavens forbid I use the term ‘factory’) to China. They are selling significant levels of stock: is there a degree of compromise and ‘selling out’ from your radical, grassroots ethics that becomes associated with success?
c) Pranking is portrayed as a more ‘playful’ form of subversive action - how do you think it measures up against the traditional culture jamming? More/less effective?
On a final note, here’s a link you all might enjoy, based on the tute's responses when asked what your favourite website was.
1 comment:
Haha that adbusters sites is really interesting...spent ages looking through all their articles and stuff!!
I thought it was pretty funny how they spend all this time and effort on these campaigns such as the barbie and anti smoking one...i acn understand how it would be so effective though. I mean you look at the government ad campaigns on the cigarette boxes and they just look generic and part of the control instilled on the public.
Whereas adbusters campaign was much diferent because it was obviously took a lot of effort, and to me it seemed a lot more personal. Like someone had gone in a shop without permission and subverted the authorities to spread the message...which is inspiring in a sense.
When we started on this topic this week I actually immediately thought of the street artist Banksy - who I think is some sort of culture jammer(if that makes sense lol). I think his art is absolutely amazing and the political commentary alongside that is just hilarious really. I think a lot of people admire him for that - he's doing something which would take a lot of effort and commitment and even though he is doing something essentially illegal, he's also highly respected because of the quality and purpose of his art.
I think some people may get the idea from these culture jammers that they're just pretentious elitists(well I get that picture from articles I've read anyway..) but I personally find it really interesting to see how people can reinvent these ads to convey some new meaning. Theres also the case where people will argue people such as adbusters are 'sellouts' if they get lotsa money or whatever...I think there is this notion everywhere though - that if you're against capitalism or conformism or whatever else is part of society, and suddenly earn lots of money people immediately think you don't care bout the original cause anymore(im thinking rage against the machine here haha). In some cases I think it is iportant to be wary about these groups who preach certain things but contradict themselves later on, but at the same time I also think its great to rebutt the masses of information the authorities and corporations are telling us. In that sense, culture jamming makes advertising kind of like a 2 way street...instead of a one way street.
Hope that makes sense. Sorry if I went on a tangent lol.
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