Thesis:
“We are a network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we live in the 21st century.” (Taken from adbusters.org)
In other words: Adbusters wasn't created to make you mass consume, or to advertise big company products. In fact they are trying to do the exact opposite. Adbusters is a collaboration of people who want to reconstruct our economy, our ecology, our consumption, and who want us to question the media and the world around us.
5 Facts:
1. It is based out of Vancouver Canada.
2.Adbusters is a not-for-profit, reader supported magazine.
3.Adbusters contributes to/ promotes/ encourages readers to participate in various campaigns including...
3A. Blackspot Shoes-
They run ads for them, and repeatedly speak highly of them. These shoes are made with hemp, recycled tires, and vegan leather. The shoes are produces in fair trade or unionized factories. They only sell these shoes to independent retailers. The purpose of this is to help circulate money in local economies instead of big industries.
Which is exactly what it sounds like. They encourage readers and consumers to, on an organized date, spend no money. “Participate by not participating,” and “The more you consume the less you live” are just two of the things that can be read plastered over pictures in promotion of this day. This is done to encourage thought about how mind numbing it is to just buy things. This is done to ask us to take a look at our economy and the effect we have on it.
3C. "Digital Detox Week"
This campaign encourages us to unplug ourselves for an entire week. to step back from all forms of technology and immerse ourselves in the "reality" outside of technology.
4.Adbusters is a magazine that uses "culture jamming" as it's main source for fighting consumerism. Culture jamming is described as ...
" an interruption in normative consumerist experience in order to expose the underlying meaning of an advertisement, media message, or consumer artifact. By reorganizing media to lend it new meaning, culture jamming aims to expose the problems of large, influential corporations that possess control of media. It is a form of protest, so the culture jammer attempts to be as public as possible in order to stir up enough trouble to garner the issue real attention. Culture jamming is intended to be a means of allowing the people to take advantage of their right to ‘free speech’ and to call into question what the media tells them to think or believe."
(Taken from wikipedia, but adapted from Kari Pritchard, “Questioning Culture”, www.cordweekly.com, April 1, 2009")
5. Adbusters frequently receives criticism that it's style similarly resembles the media and commercial products that it attacks.
Triune Brain:
Reptillian- The articles written attempt to give us something to think about, something to want to fight back against.
Limbic- The pictures are large, and usually have in intense, meaningful purpose that relates to the articles or idea of consumerism.
Neocortex- There are many many words in this magazine. They are there for the purpose of reading.
8 Trends:
Epistemological shift (word to image)- The images shown in the magazine usually have correlation to the words printed. The articles shown in the magazine are easily found online.
Discursive shift (from objective to subjective)- Adbusters is not afraid to be subjective, by any means.
7 Principles:
Reality construction:
Adbusters presents the idea to readers that we need to change the current state of our economy and ecology. They try to convey how terrible large corporations and big businesses are. Corporations = evil. Local consumption = good. Protesting ins any way against large corporations = very good.
Production techniques- Strong images of protesters, poverty, spoof images...
Persuasive Techniques:
Symbols- they spoof on well known symbols (Mcdonalds, Camels, Nike...)
Hyperbole- They make very definite claims about controversial issues.
Bandwagon- They think everyone should be protesting. The more the merrier.
Scapegoating- blaming out problems on big companies.
The following video reminded me a little of adbusters and the way they want us to question the reality of the media.
