Final Thoughts

To wrap up a wonderful semester, here is my final posting on my chosen topic on culture jamming.

Firstly, I just want to thank you Roumen for a great final semester at UWS (for the both of us!), and it has been a pleasure studying under your expertise for the past three years. I wish you all the best and hope we cross professional paths one day.

Now, to my post.

From my research, I trust that you all have learnt about, or even more about this subject.

I originally asked how advertisements work to ‘control’ how we position brands/products in our minds and how it helps in the search for perfection. I also asked the difference between North American and Australian consumer cultures, and the existence of culture jamming within them.

To tackle the first point, we’re surrounded by thousands of ads each day – some we realise, some we don’t – there is such a heavy emphasis on ads it’s insane with billions of dollars being spent each year. It’s with this constant feed of products of companies trying to sell a product; it’s features and benefits and how you as a consumer fit into this ideal. Ads hook us in, and its hard to find a way out since our humanistic ways naturally tell us to takes things in, rather than question the masses. Companies fight for all of our ‘mindshare’ – they want a slice of their product/brand to be a permanent mark on your brain. Once it’s there, it’s hard to remove or replace which is a shocking thing to picture. I am a victim of this so called ‘mind share’ with Apple/Mac just one of the examples I highlighted in my post.

This also brings up culture jams in general – they exist, but we don’t necessarily notice them straight away. Sure, they’re satirical and make us chuckle from time-to-time, but the messages embedded in the distorted ads are the elements we need to focus on as consumers. It informs us of the real issues, history and true nature of the company – it is these that will enlighten us to make better consumer decisions.

As for the difference between nations, I personally think it comes down to the amount and type of ads in the consumer market place, as well as culture, values and peers. North America appeared more ad saturated (with billions more spent on ads), however their culture seem more informed, yet acknowledge the art of culture jamming and excess consumer spending. By reading comments from North Americans – like Canadian Jamie’s High School celebrated “Buy Nothing Day” a few years back. This would have never crossed the ocean to Australia and be implemented in a secondary education. I don’t think that this means Australians’ are less informed, but rather haven’t experience such a heavy consumer driven culture that they feel the need to take strong social action. The advertising industries and consumer culture histories are quite different as noted in an earlier post – and this would explain the two unique approaches to this term that relate directly to the whole consumer experience, from start (1800’s) to end/present.

At the end of the day however, I know I’m more informed, are you?

A brief history of advertisements and consumer culture

Consumer culture lies deep into history and the rise of advertisements that drive this movement. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the American business market changed in dramatic ways. From a steady rise in industry and formulation of a market economy, banking systems and wages, it created what is now known as a capitalist society. Around the 1840s, the concept of modern advertising emerged in American society, which predominately targeted women as the consumer good influences in the household.

The 1880s saw advertisements focusing on the “wants” and “needs” of the growing consumer population. By purchasing this product (i.e a stove), it would reduce the toil and labour of the kitchen providing more time to nurture a family. Through creating wants and needs to consumers, advertisements were instrumental in paving the way for successful capitalism in America, which is driven by large corporations advertising their products in all media forms.

Across the world in Australia during the 1800s , advertisements played the same role – to convince consumers to buy goods that will make their lives easier. These ads however painted a lifestyle of the “Australian life” surrounded by beaches, sun and playing outdoor activities, providing a more relaxed and ‘realistic’ variation of life.

Our histories show that ads capture aspects of our lives and how they can help make life easier. They drive us to think a certain way and purchase certain items that we believe we need and want. Consumerism encouraged by advertisements create an illusion of demand that likewise created an overabundance of supply in cars and similar products. And after decades of being told what to buy, culture jams act to reclaim the public space. We are what make society and know our wants and needs, and we have the power to speak/act back.

Take for example costly water bottles. You don’t really need them (spending up to $3 on 600ml is outrageous!) when tap water is perfectly fine [are somewhat free] to drink. Marketers draw us with words “natural”, “springs”, “pure” and “crystal”, making the water – a natural resource – appear almost magical and special. It changes how we think, and influences our purchase decisions even if we know what’s logical and the best for us.

Mac 1 – Ashleigh 0

We grow up living in an environment that appears natural to us – it’s something we’re used to so we don’t question a thing. I am talking about the existence of advertising that constantly shows us the way, what product to be interested in, what to buy and where to buy it through its permanent residence in our mind/world. It feeds us what information “we need to know” to pay attention and result with an action; usually a purchase. This is marketing and advertising, and of course us (Communication students) are now aware of this and the certain processes and models each product campaign follows to succeed.

Fast forward the latest phone and a mp3 player later, and we come to realize “was this my choice, do I really need that?” . I admit, for several years I was anti Apple/Mac (Dave can actually vouch for this!), then all of a sudden when my whole environment was saturated with cool images and features of iPods and iPhones, something sparked off inside me that made me yearn to have ownership of such a senseless product that I had despised earlier.  What made me impulsively change my mind?

Now even though I love my iPhone as much as my iPod, I think strategically it comes down to the driving advertisements, especially on my television saying “I’m a Mac (cool) and I’m a PC (not cool)”. Where I will confess, I was embarrassed to even be associated with a ugly, heavy, suit nerd. This shows the power [Mac] advertising had on my brain and the perceptions it helped create against brands. Mac 1 – Ashleigh 0. I am a victim of media consumption that filled my empty void with a product that made me happy.

Let’s do the Culture Jam

“ We will wreck this world”.
— Kalle Lasn, in Culture Jam.

Culture Jam – sound familiar? It probably doesn’t… not in Australia anyway, but perhaps that’s a good thing!

I’m sure Australians’ would have at least seen some culture jams in their life time, but probably not aware of this. Take this for example, a spin on Absolut Vodka’s poster campaign:

As you can see, Culture Jammers’ take an ad,  manipulate it using the same media channels, and embed a brand new meaning (usually about social, political, ethical and other issues) that are not publicized by that particular brand or corporation behind it. The Absolut Vodka example plays on the fact of excessive alcoholic drink (binge drinking) can have impotence affects on males… This is something that Absolut does not advertise at all. Culture jamming, however can be in a variety of forms in bumper stickers, texture drawings (over an existing poster), graphics, stencils… the list is endless. Yet, the mainstream channels are by subverting an advertisement, like above.

I picked up this term whilst living in North America last year; a country dominated by megalithic corporations and the constant desire to sell, sell, sell and buy, buy, buy! Definitely something not as driven in this country as when I see America – I see it as the centre of the world; where everyone is a part of the corporation chain.

This term, and exposure to a world I never knew has opened my eyes about consumerism, capitalism and the fetishism placed on commodities from Advertisers and makes me question media channels and messages corporations (especially) send to the mass audience.

So many messages, not enough time.

Culture jamming is a method anti-consumerism activists have adopted as a means of “breaking through” the media clutter. On average, the Australian consumer sees around 3,000 advertisements a day.  These include visible and hidden logos, posters, billboards, street media, shopping centre media, and print/radio/television ads; and not to forget to mention thanks to the internet, banner ads and spam mail.

This figure is the exact as the average American consumer, with the addition of global corporations spend over $620 billion each year to make their products seem desirable and get them to buy.

From my experience, in American society, advertisements heavily consume their everyday lives. It constantly tells them how to look, how to act, and most importantly, how to think. This is something not experienced to the extent in Australia, and was a huge culture shock to myself.

The best way to approach this topic is to position myself as if I was still on the other side of the world. We see America as a consumer-driven society saturated in advertisement… how does the opposition or public make its voice heard?   This is, essentially, where culture jamming comes in play.   In order to dissent against America’s obsession with buying and spending, culture jamming enlists the aid of prominent symbols with pre-existing meanings/emotions attached, called memes (i.e.: a red octagon means stop, Nike swoosh).  Through the utilization of these commonly understood symbols, culture jammers turn their meanings against itself to address the larger concern of consumption and its indications.

This blog aims to approach the way media consumes our daily lives, and the controlling affects it can have to objectify a product or brand with the search for ‘perfection’. It also aims to find out why this isn’t a common term in Australia, and if this is in fact, a good thing or not.