Culture Jamming, the good, the bad and the ugly

My initial reaction to culture jamming was one of admiration. I though to myself ‘this is amazing, how can I get into it’. Culture jammers display remarkable creativity and passion as they attempt to educate the uninformed and ignorant. Sadly, a large percentage of our population fall into the category of uninformed and ignorant due, in no small part, to the ever increasing dominance of powerful interests. Powerful interests that want us to remain obediently amenable to their self-serving, wealth generating activities. This problem is exacerbated by the waning power and influence of the fourth estate. Culture jamming is a powerful channel for expression and freedom of speech against these powerful interests and I believe it has to be one of the most exciting avenues for collective and/or individual expression available to us today.

Benjamin R. Barber's book, 'How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole' is regarded as a piercing and vital look at how capitalism is consuming society. Capitalism and over-consumption is 'eating us up'! Barber claims that in our culture of over-consumption we are turning our children into aggressive consumers and also harming the psychological development of adults. I tend to agree with his assertions.
Culture Jamming is a way to reclaim our culture, rid ourselves of the 'shop till you drop' mentality and help us understand the issues that our society face.

Have a look at this video at http://kleercut.net/en/. This is a very specific culture jamming website devoted to Kimberly-Clark and their use of old growth forests in the production of Kleenex tissue products. Kleercut jammers recently used this very sophisticated approach (see video) to get their message out to shareholders of Kimberly-Clark and the general public. Did you know that Kleenex tissue products are made from old growth forest timber?

The advertising for Kleenex depict downy ducklings, fluffy puppies and cute children. All residing in the perfect TV ad world of beautiful people where everyone has sparkling white teeth.

Yes, these images give you a warm and fuzzy feeling, right?
But they certainly do not give you any insight into where Kimberly Clark source their raw materials.

Culture jammers give us this insight!

Mmmm... I'm not feeling so warm and fuzzy any more!

Culture jamming makes the act of protesting fun again. Adbusters, the most famous culture jammers of all have a wonderful spoof section on their website at http://adbusters.org/spoofads/index.php, Reverend Billy's Church of Stop Shopping site is very entertaining http://www.revbilly.com/ and Joey Skaggs new site 'Ther Art of the Prank' http://pranks.com/ has some fabulous material. Another site which features some amazing animations dedicated to US political satire http://www.markfiore.com/animation/corrections.html is heavily slanted toward 'Bush Bashing', however still well worth a visit.

Here's a little culture jamming of my own:
The Liberal Party website http://www.liberal.org.au/ proudly displays the latest statement from JH:



Debeers has a long history of explotatation in South Africa.


Culture jamming is a most welcome response to the inadequacies and declining power of the fourth estate and I believe it can have only a positive influence on our society. Culture jammer’s provide, what I would regard, a public service. They educate, inform and enlighten us to the corrupt, immoral and deceitful practices taking place in our society. Practices that in many cases are legal, but are they ethical, moral and just?

Good, Bad or Ugly, what do you think?