Greenpeace activist with drums bearing the changed logo of Esso
(EPA/EMPICS)
Culture Jamming
It's hard to escape adverts in our society. But with a little
ingenuity, advertising can be turned to your own advantage.
You just have to do a little culture jamming: use the mass media that surrounds you to make your points, instead of letting the media use you. Here are some of the ways people do it:
- changing billboards – often in a way that won't be obvious
to the casual observer
- using corporate logos for new and unexpected purposes – Christian
groups, for example, modified the Coca-Cola trademark to read:
'Jesus, he's the real thing'
- changing corporate slogans to create political statements
– to Nike's 'Just do it' activists added '... or else!' (a comment
on the company's alleged sweatshop practices)
Some people refer to this practice of making spoofs or parodies of
corporate and political advertisements as 'subvertising'.
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