Usernames: Ace55kg, Bakerella, OwlEyes, B-Bloggin, tm-blogger, Seraph of the Rose, Eternal Drive, The Veiled Interpreter, Sushi Warrior, Goldilocks, Meryle Girl, and Regina Filangi
Dr. Jenny Roth
WOME 2113
WOME 2113
October 4th, 2011
Culture Jamming FA2014
Culture jamming takes popular culture representations in the media, advertising, newspapers, music and television and twists it, allowing people to dissect it to their own interpretation. By manipulating these medial portrayals it redefines their meaning in a revolutionary direction. Culture jamming takes recognizable popular images and parodies their message essentially encouraging critical thought surrounding the truths and realities behind such ads. Limitations are not set to target any one particular organization; anyone and everyone is a target. Culture jammers work to change ways information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society.
Culture jamming is highly represented in large matters through distorting large billboards or well-known advertisements yet can just as easily be done on a smaller scale. An example of smaller scale jams is Shop Dropping where, for instance, individuals take their message to a grocery store and replace stickers on bananas to raise the awareness of chemicals.
Shopdropping. http://thishattheseandthose.com/chiquita-banana/
The next few images are direct depictions of different realities affected by culture jamming;
Thinner than ever. Adbuster Media Foundation. Retrieved October 1, 2011. http://www.adbusters.org/spoofads/ad-game
This picture is a culture jam on iPad's advertisement encouraging you to buy their new, thin, fancy product. We are encouraged to buy these expensive new products disregarding the fact that the person who made it was most likely underpaid and had a poor working environment. True happiness and success is not determined by owning the latest gadget.
While "Overanalyzing" looks like a typical Cosmopolitan issue, it represents the truth behind what are really getting when we purchase this magazine. It is nothing more than a handbook on what we should do to look like the cover model, through exercise, make-up, and more importantly, how to ‘please’ men. It objectifies women, and furthers the idea we are responsible for three things in life; bitching, sex, and looking good.
While "Overanalyzing" looks like a typical Cosmopolitan issue, it represents the truth behind what are really getting when we purchase this magazine. It is nothing more than a handbook on what we should do to look like the cover model, through exercise, make-up, and more importantly, how to ‘please’ men. It objectifies women, and furthers the idea we are responsible for three things in life; bitching, sex, and looking good.
Cosmo Culture Jam. Analyzing Pornification of Women. https://plus.google.com/112374836634096795698/posts/HhNNfrbDwVV
The below photo is from a culture jamming group called the 'The Bubble Project', which aims to transform corporate advertisement spaces into fun, silly, and perhaps educational conversations. The bubbles can be found all over the globe, taped directly on top of corporate ads - some are left blank, some are complete with dialogue. Ultimately however, these conversation bubbles provide everyday people the chance to speak back at corporations and, to be liberated from the constant bombardment of advertisements in the media and public spaces.
Bubble Project, Flickr from Yahoo. Retrieved September 30, 2011, http://www.flickr.com/groups/bubble_project/pool/
Furthermore, culture jamming can address issues other than ones in mainstream media. The Billboard Liberation Front (BLF) is a well-known underground organization that initiated in 1977 gaining a strong reputation among other culture jammers. The BLF responded to a highly publicized oil spill environmental crisis in Japan by the Exxon. The infamous “Shit Happens” slogan was used to address this issue. This billboard manipulation was one of the most highly publicized culture jams to date. Additionally, many Culture Jamming groups such as Adbusters take culture jamming to billboards; magazines and campaigns such as “Buy nothing day”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjgrHX94bKo
In conclusion, culture jamming can be exceptionally effective, yet our society seems to be desperately caught up in this ideal of a fast-paced lifestyle that often culture jams go completely unnoticed and disregarded. Many of these culture jamming ads are so similar to the actual ads themselves that unless oblivion is not an issue, one would not hesitate to take a second look. Culture jams have the potential to be effective for those who choose to be affected by it. If they don't get people acting it, they certainly get people thinking. Thought and knowledge have the potential to be very powerful if action is followed.
Sincerely yours,
Ace55kg
Ace55kg
Bakerella
Eternal Drive
Eternal Drive
OwlEyes
B-Bloggin
Tm-blogger
Seraph of the Rose
The Veiled Interpreter
Sushi Warrior
Goldilocks
Meryle Girl
Regina Filangi
Works Cited
Bubble Project, Flickr from Yahoo. Retrieved September 30, 2011,
http://www.flickr.com/groups/bubble_project/pool/
Cosmo Culture Jam. Analyzing Pornification of
Women.https://plus.google.com/112374836634096795698/posts/HhNNfrbDwVV
Sexism Billboard Culture Jam, Retrieved September 30, 2011, http://broadbands.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/feminist-culture-jams.on/
Shit Happens, Culture Jam Billboard. Retrieved October 1, 2011,
http://culturejamming.tribe.net/photos/ca946264-c340-49fd-87fb-591904eeb2f4
Shopdropping. http://thishattheseandthose.com/chiquita-banana/
Thinner than ever. Adbuster Media Foundation. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
http://www.adbusters.org/spoofads/ad-game
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