No – advertising has not beaten culture jamming at its own game
In this guest post, an anonymous activist argues why advertising has not subverted culture jamming – and why Australia would be a better place without ‘visual pollution’
At a photography exhibition now on the Sydney Museum last week, a question was put to a panel of experts. Would our cities be better without any advertising. The answer was a resounding “yes”.
This didn’t really come as much of a surprise. After all, the panel were culture jammers – activists who subvert mainstream media, altering the message of an ad to tell a story of their own.
The term culture jamming is associated with the rise of anti-globalisation and a backlash against rising consumerism and the power of brands during the nineties and noughties.
The first thing you notice when you arrive in Australia from abroad is how very restrained and minimal the advertising is compared to say The United Kingdom.
The Sao Paolo experience is interesting. I wonder if all the redundant advertisers now feel liberated to use their creative skills for a more wholesome, commuity-minded pursuit.
I’d be interested to know how Anon would respond to the graffiti on the new Mad Men subway ads. http://www.funnyordie.com/slid.....iti#slide1
A ‘culture-jammer’ contributing to an ad blog.
How 90’s.
lol rofl
I’m surprised the article doesn’t mention Nestle. They have been culture-jammed over and over again, particularly over their use of Palm Sugar – Gorilla fingers, anyone?
But I might argue that they are still around, seemingly untouched by culture-jamming techniques.
About 10 years ago I was involved with a group called ‘We are all boat people’ which was a refugee action group that used culture jamming where possible… in the end, I was disillusioned by all the people that would walk past our efforts, completely unaware of our ironic tweaks… made me start to realise that if they don’t even notice culture jamming, they mustn’t be noticing the ads much either…
Hi Alison_F,
I don’t reckon the point of culture-jamming Nestle was about sending them into oblivion. More like getting them to change their policy on palm oil.
And it worked and has become a case study in how to pressure a brand to improve their environment performance.
Culture-jammer with a day job eh… wonder if that day job is perchance in advertising?
We’re getting a carbon tax – how about a visual pollution tax. You want to pollute our environment visually, you pay. Problem is of course, what is visual pollution?- who decides? Is an advertising sponsored billboard depicting just the Mona Lisa painting pollution? Now what if you now put a corporation’s little logo on the bottom right. Did art just become pollution? Some advertising billboards have visuals that are a pleasure to look at and brighten your day. There is no reason why they can’t all be like that. Put it in the creative brief and insist on it.
Culture jamming…will always exist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSaOS4sgJ68
It at least makes all the boring crap out there look more interesting.
Cultural Jamming would appear to be the healthy cousin of Data-Collection Obsfuscating.
as if any culture jamming made a shred of difference
Frankly the extreme lack of billboard busting and culture jamming in Sydney annoys me. It feels like every bit of public space is adorned with an ugly, un-clever billboard selling some hideous junk that I would never want. Hell, I’ve even felt like getting a texta out and scrawling the word “grub” or “fat f##kwit” over Kyle Sandilands moronic head as it stares down from just about every overpass you care to name. The public are surprisingly passive in this war for public space and I would love to see advertisers called to account for stinking up the visual landscape.
beelzebub your lethargy is simply overwhelming.