Culture Jamming by Naomi Klein begins with an introduction to Rodriguez de Gerada, a creative founder of culture jamming. He is performing ‘citizen art’ in New York City, modifying a Newport ad on a billboard, overlooking a poor neighbourhood, where the billboards advertising liquor and cigarettes are disproportionately high. Unlike vandals, Rodriguez de Gerada creates art on ads in the middle of the day, encouraging an audience and an active conversation about the merit of his work.
Adbusting encourages a community discussion about the politics of public space. Billboard ads become part of the community; they are chunks of privatization amongst public land, which should be safe, neutral governmental property and residential areas. The one-way passive flow of information, from ad to person, does not have to be this way, adbusters argue.
The demand for the Adbusters magazine has increased from 5,000 copies in 1989, to over 35,000 in 2000. The increase in demand has been credited to the delight of the masses when the new institutions, the corporations, are mocked and their power is trivialized. Legal implications, for adbusters have been greatly avoided by the very corporations that are the victims of the ad modifications. The press covering any lawsuit would highlight the corporation as being ‘the target of community protests’, as one advertising executive told the Advertising Age. It seems adbusting is safe from corporations within the legal, and therefore political, sphere.
The commonly held position that culture jamming is harmless satire is a severe mistake. It has not occurred in a vacuum, it is clear response to the political reality and anti-corporatization ideology that is sweeping the world. The power within the movement and the education of the public will cause great change within the broader political spectrum.
Klein, Naomi. 'Culture Jamming: Ads Under Attack'. No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Vintage Canada, 2000. 279-310.
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