Culture Jamming

Culture Jamming is sort of like some martial arts that use the force of the attacker to disable him. In this case, the tools of marketing are used to expose the tools of marketing (and sometimes the deceptions of corporations). Note: we do not necessarily endorse the messages or tactics of all practitioners. See also Humor page.

Often these efforts are aimed at Consumption. For example: A new book by Billy Talen prophetically titled, The End of the World (OR Books), may be just the trick. Talen, also known as Reverend Billy, and his Church of Stop Shopping, exposes the socio-political structure of consumerism and the commoditization of the earth with songs, impassioned preaching and theater events. Talen has been arrested 70 times along with members of the Church for their acts of civil disobedience in banks and other places of corporate mediation.

Exxon hates your children needs support.

The Yes Men did a talk at ESLP at UCSC. Their new (3rd) movie is The Yes Men Are Revolting launched 6/15. Community Studies graduate Jen Lopez ('07) talking about her career and working as a line producer with The Yes Men on their recent movie. video interview.

The Yes Men spoof Arctic oil drilling. see also here Billboard and Twitter.

The Yes Lab (home of the Yes Men) recently put up a site called CoalCares.com, a parody suggesting that coal company Peabody is interested in doing something about the health impacts of coal on children. (How dare they!) Peabody responded, predictably, by threatening a lawsuit.More. [On the other hand, Children’s books publisher Scholastic is taking money from the coal industry to teach elementary students the benefits of coal.

Beautiful Trouble is a how-to guide, see also Yes Lab above.

Weather girl goes rogue video.

One of the best known groups is Adbusters, headquartered in Canada. They are best know for their spoof ads.

Examples: Burger King billboard modification.

Power Shift turns Bank of America ATMs into truth-dispensing machines

"Phone Story" the iPhone app contains a mini-game exploring a different problem in the consumer electronics supply chain. How would you like to force children to mine precious metals, save suicidal workers from jumping to their deaths so they can labor another day, or find the cheapest way to dispose of mountains of e-waste—all while keeping productivity up so you can toss shiny trinkets to adoring consumers?

New Yes Men action on copyright 5/12.

UCSC Community Studies graduate Jen Lopez ('07) talking about her career and working as a line producer with The Yes Men on their recent movie. video interview. You can participate too: currently there's a design competition to counter the Chevron greenwash We Agree ads]

"The Gender Remixer lets you set the video of one toy ad to the audio of another aimed at the opposite gender, with hilarious/disturbing results."

Music

A great fracking video rap: What the frack is going on? My water's on fire tonight

Music video on plastic bags.

Fresh and Green rap video.

See also various art forms on Multimedia