Misplaced Pages

#76923

64-410: The brand marketing specialist Douglas B. Holt defined it as "turning expressions of the capitalist system and its media culture against itself". Détournement was prominently used to set up subversive political pranks, an influential tactic called situationist prank that was reprised by the punk movement in the late 1970s and inspired the culture jamming movement in the late 1980s. Its opposite

128-550: A BC Supreme Court ruling that had dismissed the case in February 2008. The court granted Adbusters the ability to sue the Canadian Broadcasting Company and CanWest Global, the corporations that originally refused to air the anti-car ad "Autosaurus". The ruling represents a victory for Adbusters, but it is the first step of their intended goal, essentially opening the door for future legal action against

192-716: A " dumbing down " of society, exemplified by: This change has been described as replacing high-quality art and genuine folk traditions with mass-produced items designed to cater to the broadest and simplest tastes. Critics contend that post- World War II popular culture furthered the concentration of media into a few multinational conglomerates . These conglomerates reduced substantive news content, replacing it with entertainment and sensationalism that amplify "fears, prejudice , scapegoating processes, paranoia , and aggression." Altheide and Snow propose that media culture increasingly shapes other institutions, such as politics , religion , and sports , constructing them alongside

256-598: A form of protest. The term "jam" contains more than one meaning, including improvising, by re-situating an image or idea already in existence, and interrupting, by attempting to stop the workings of a machine. As already noted, the foundation's approach to culture jamming has its roots in the activities of the situationists and in particular their concept of détournement . This involves the "turning around" of received messages so that they communicate meanings at variance with their original intention. Situationists argue that consumerism creates "a limitless artificiality", blurring

320-425: A growing environmentalist movement. The logging industry fought back with a television ad campaign called "Forests Forever." It was an early example of greenwashing : shots of happy children, workers and animals with a kindly, trustworthy sounding narrator who assured the public that the logging industry was protecting the forest. Lasn and Shmalz, outraged by the use of the public airwaves to deliver what they felt

384-415: A larger work intended to subvert the original source. The comic artist Brad Neely 's reinterpretation of Harry Potter , Wizard People , took Warner Bros. ' first Harry Potter film, The Sorcerer's Stone , and substituted the original soundtrack with a narration that casts the hero as a Nietzschean superman . The concept of detournement has had a popular influence amongst contemporary radicals, and

448-446: A legal challenge in 1995. A second in 2004 was against CBC, CTV, CanWest and CHUM, for refusing to air anti-consumerism commercials, therefore infringing on the staff's freedom of speech. In one case, a CHUM representative is quoted as saying the ads "were so blatantly against television and that is our entire core business. You know we can't be selling our airtime and then telling people to turn their TVs off." In March 2004, Adbusters

512-1054: A media logic. Since the 1950s, television has been the dominant medium for shaping public opinion. In Rosenberg and White's book " Mass Culture ," Dwight Macdonald observed that popular culture makes light of profound aspects of life, such as sex , death , failure , and tragedy , by emphasizing simple and fleeting pleasures. Over time, audiences conditioned by this content begin to prefer unchallenging and shallow cultural products. Van den Haag similarly criticized mass media for intensifying individuals’ isolation from reality and personal experiences. The pursuit of ratings has diluted television content, prioritizing superficial and eye-catching material. Hollywood films increasingly emphasize shock value, superficial thrills, and special effects. Themes often cater to aggression, revenge, violence, and greed, resulting in formulaic plots, bland characters, and un-engaging dialogue. These trends fail to accurately represent real-life complexities or explore creative storytelling. More recently, scholars studying

576-1092: A narrative about who they are and who they aspire to be. Scholars regard symbolic consumption as a social construct , with shared perceptions about a product’s meaning conveyed through advertising, magazines, and television. Jean-Paul Sartre suggested that objects and even people could become part of an extended self-concept. Consumption choices allow individuals to maintain or redefine their identity, create continuity with their past, or signal changes in their sense of self. The symbolism of goods relies on shared societal beliefs, shaping how people use consumption to navigate personal and social identities. Feminist approaches to media culture emerge from feminist theory , exploring how media impacts women, portrays their roles, and perpetuates or challenges societal perspectives. Angela McRobbie ’s analysis of teenage girls’ magazines like " Jackie " exemplifies this. Using structural feminism, McRobbie identified how codes of romance , domesticity , fashion , and beauty shaped young women’s identities. Her more recent work continues to reveal

640-521: A poster featuring a dancer atop Wall Street's iconic Charging Bull . On 13 July 2011 it was the staff at the magazine that created the #OCCUPYWALLSTREET hashtag on Twitter. While the movement was started by Adbusters, the group does not control the movement, and it has since grown worldwide . The foundation has been criticized for solicitating dangerous criminal mischief by escalating their methods to deflate "SUV tires in an effort to fight climate change." The foundation has been criticized for having

704-403: A snapshot, a press clipping, an everyday object which draw all their meaning from being placed in a new context. Deceptive détournements are when already significant elements such as a major political or philosophical text, great artwork or work of literature take on new meanings or scope by being placed in a new context. For Debord, a détournement is a way to expose explicitly the inner workings of

SECTION 10

#1732776715077

768-588: A specific way of feminist thinking has affected women and media culture. While feminist approaches are significant, they represent just one lens for understanding and dissecting media culture. Other perspectives also contribute to a fuller understanding of media’s influence. Media culture, particularly through advertising and public relations, is often viewed as a system designed to influence and manipulate society. Corporate media frequently serves to reinforce dominant ideologies, as theorized by Theodor Adorno . Media culture’s association with consumerism has earned it

832-541: A style and form that are too similar to the media and commercial product that Adbusters attack, that its high gloss design makes the magazine too expensive, and that a style over substance approach is used to mask sub-par content. Heath and Potter posit that the more alternative or subversive the foundation feels, the more appealing the Blackspot sneaker will become to the mainstream market. They believe consumers seek exclusivity and social distinction and have argued that

896-603: A trick to promote the series Lupin . In 2012, Sixt made a détournement of François Hollande's presidential campaign for a billboard ad. Naomi Klein describes this as a récuperation of détournement. In Debord's words, in the case of advertising, the détournement reverses the Spectacle, and in doing so becomes the Spectacle. Examples include Sprite 's Image is nothing , Nike's 1997 campaign slogan ' I am not/A target market/I am an athlete ', and Colin Kaepernick 's Taking

960-412: Is recuperation , in which radical ideas or the social image of people who are viewed negatively are twisted, commodified, and absorbed in a more socially acceptable context. In general it can be defined as a variation on previous work, in which the newly created work has a meaning that is antagonistic or antithetical to the original. The original media work that is détourned must be somewhat familiar to

1024-546: Is a matter of something like a culture that arises spontaneously from the masses themselves, the contemporary form of popular art. Adbusters The Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit , pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver , British Columbia. Adbusters describes itself as "a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance

1088-622: Is known for their " subvertisements " that spoof popular advertisements . In English, Adbusters has bi-monthly American, Canadian, Australian, UK and International editions of each issue. Adbusters's sister organizations include Résistance à l'Aggression Publicitaire and Casseurs de Pub in France, Adbusters Norge in Norway, Adbusters Sverige in Sweden and Culture Jammers in Japan. Adbusters

1152-470: Is made from organic hemp and recycled car tires. After an extensive search for anti-sweatshop manufacturers around the world, Adbusters found a small union shop in Portugal. The sale of more than twenty-five thousand pairs through an alternative distribution network is an example of Western consumer activism marketing. Adbusters describes its goals vis-à-vis Blackspot as follows: Blackspot shoes

1216-431: Is our experiment with grassroots capitalism. After spending many years railing against the practices of megacorporations like McDonalds, Starbucks and Nike, we wanted to prove that running an ethical, environmentally responsible business is possible ... and that taking market share away from megacorporations is better than whining about them. Heath and Potter's The Rebel Sell , which is critical of Adbusters, claimed that

1280-459: Is particularly well known for its culture jamming campaigns, and the magazine often features photographs of politically motivated billboard or advertisement vandalism sent in by readers. The campaigns attempt to remove people from the "isolated reality of consumer comforts". In 2004, the foundation began selling vegan , indie shoes. The name and logo are "open-source"; in other words, unencumbered by private trademarks. Attached to each pair

1344-543: Is the distortion of Tiger Woods ' smile into the form of the Nike swoosh, calling viewers to question how they view Woods' persona as a product. Adbusters calls it "trickle up" activism, and encourages its readers to do these activities by honoring culture jamming work in the magazine. In the September/October 2001 "Graphic Anarchy" issue, Adbusters were culture jammed themselves in a manner of speaking: they hailed

SECTION 20

#1732776715077

1408-407: The mediatization of culture describe how media influences cultural processes. Media not only serves as cultural artifacts but also shapes other domains, further integrating media logic into diverse aspects of society. Media culture’s mass marketing has been likened to the role of traditional religions in the past. Waves of consumer enthusiasm and exaltation for products have been compared to

1472-401: The 2011 Spanish protests . Adbusters' senior editor Micah White said they had suggested the protest via their email list and it "was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world." Adbusters' website said that from their "one simple demand—a presidential commission to separate money from politics" they would "start setting the agenda for a new America." They promoted the protest with

1536-529: The British television series The Day Today and Brass Eye . In advertising, a détournement ( détournement publicitaire in French) is almost like subvertising , except that the goal of a détournement is to promote a product by mocking the way another one is promoted. In October 2023, Netflix used the advertising visual style of luxury jewelry brands but with models that were obviously missing those jewels,

1600-464: The Experts" sidebar. Brian Martin of Brand Connections and Dave Weaver of TM Advertising both gave the campaign favorable reviews. Martin noted that Blackspot was effectively telling consumers, "We know we are marketing to you, and you are as good as we are at this, and your opinion matters," while Weaver stated that "This is not a call to sales of the shoe so much as it is a call to participate in

1664-494: The Mental Environment." In a 1996 interview, Kalle Lasn explained the foundation's goal: What we're trying to do is pioneer a new form of social activism using all the power of the mass media to sell ideas, rather than products. We're motivated by a kind of 'greenthink' that comes from the environmental movement and isn't mired in the old ideology of the left and right. Instead, we take the environmental ethic into

1728-698: The Middle East were not a subject of debate. In October 2010, Shopper's Drug Mart pulled Adbusters off of its shelves after a photo montage comparing the Gaza Strip to the Warsaw ghetto was featured in an article criticizing Israel's embargo of Gaza. The Canadian Jewish Congress campaigned to have the magazine blacklisted from bookstores, accusing Adbusters of trivializing the Holocaust and of antisemitism. In response, Adbusters argued that

1792-454: The alternative label of " consumer culture ." The twenty-first century Western world, driven by American corporate and consumer ideology, is a perpetual media culture that depends on sound bites and the next thing , leaving the public reduced to media consumers never allowed time to reflect on the information. Volume and speed have consumed and obliterated nuance, ethics, and accuracy. ...the interpretation agreeable to its advocates: that it

1856-459: The blackspot shoe's existence proves that "no rational person could possibly believe that there is any tension between 'mainstream' and 'alternative' culture." In the June 2008 cover story of BusinessWeek Small Business Magazine , the Blackspot campaign was among three profiled in a piece focusing on "antipreneurs." Two advertising executives were asked to review the campaign for the article's "Ask

1920-409: The charge of antisemitism was being used to silence what it considered legitimate criticism of Israeli policies. Some critics claim that culture jamming does little to incite real difference. Others declare the movement an easy way for upper- and middle-class citizens to feel empowered by engaging in activism that bears no personal cost, such as the campaign " Buy Nothing Day ". These critics express

1984-476: The community of Adbusters by buying the shoe." In mid-2011, Adbusters Foundation proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, a growing disparity in wealth, and the absence of legal repercussions behind the recent global financial crisis. They sought to combine the symbolic location of the 2011 protests in Tahrir Square with the consensus decision making of

Détournement - Misplaced Pages Continue

2048-517: The culture jamming movement." Culture jamming is heavily influenced by the Situationist International and the tactic of détournement . The goal is to interrupt the normal consumerist experience in order to reveal the underlying ideology of an advertisement, media message, or consumer artifact. Adbusters believe large corporations control mainstream media and the flow of information, and culture jamming aims to challenge this as

2112-602: The differences between hypergraphics , "detournement", the postmodern idea of appropriation and the Neoist use of plagiarism as the use of different and similar techniques used for different and similar means, effects and causes. The Neue Slowenische Kunst has a long history of aggressive détournement of extreme political ideologies, as do several industrial music groups , such as Die Krupps , Nitzer Ebb , KMFDM , and Front 242 . Chris Morris uses détournement and culture jamming extensively in his work, particularly in

2176-495: The ecstatic rituals of religious fetishism . Conversely, the Catholic Church has been retrospectively seen as early examples of public relations, marketing their beliefs to worshippers in ways similar to modern media strategies. Consumer decisions are influenced not only by the material utility of goods but also by their symbolic value in constructing identity and group affiliation. Products help individuals create

2240-480: The extent of becoming entirely inaccurate. Hannah Arendt 's 1961 essay " The Crisis in Culture " argued that a market-driven media would lead to culture being replaced by the demands of entertainment. Similarly, Susan Sontag suggested that values originating from entertainment industries increasingly dominate modern culture, normalizing shallow or sensationalist topics. Critics argue that popular culture promotes

2304-515: The knee Nike campaign. Media culture In cultural studies , media culture refers to the current Western capitalist society that emerged and developed during the 20th century under the influence of mass media . The term highlights the extensive impact and intellectual influence of the media, primarily television, but also the press, radio, and cinema, on public opinion , tastes , and values . The alternative term mass culture suggests that such culture arises spontaneously from

2368-482: The lasting effects of media culture on women. Feminist analysis also critiques postfeminist influences in media, such as the sexualization of young girls through fashion marketed with postfeminist ideologies . While postfeminism has societal significance, it raises concerns about how certain media perpetuate harmful stereotypes and norms. This particular concept, is not to disregard the meaning that postfeminism approach provides for society and women, but to see how

2432-493: The late 1980s and early 1990s. Examples of contemporary detournement include Adbusters ' " subvertisements " and other instances of culture jamming , as well as poems composed collaboratively by Marlene Mountain , Paul Conneally , and others, in which quotations from such famous sources as the Ten Commandments and quotations by United States President George W. Bush are combined with haiku-like phrases to produce

2496-504: The line between "recuperation" and "détournement" can become thin (or at least very fuzzy) at times, as Naomi Klein points out in her book No Logo . Here she details how corporations such as Nike, Pepsi or Diesel have approached Culture Jammers and Adbusters and offered them lucrative contracts in return for partaking in "ironic" promotional campaigns. She points out further irony by drawing attention to merchandising produced in order to promote Adbusters' Buy Nothing Day , an example of

2560-598: The lines of reality and detracting from the essence of human experience. In the "culture jamming" context, détournement means taking symbols, logos and slogans that are considered to be the vehicles upon which the "dominant discourse" of "late capitalism" is communicated and changing them – frequently in significant but minor ways – to subvert the "monologue of the ruling order" [Debord]. The foundation's activism links grassroots efforts with environmental and social concerns, hoping followers will "reconstruct [their] self through nonconsumption strategies." The foundation

2624-415: The magazine attempts to create a means of raising awareness and getting its message out to people that is both aesthetically pleasing and entertaining. Activism also takes many other forms such as corporate boycotts and 'art as protest', often incorporating humor. This includes billboard modifications, google bombing , flash mobs and fake parking tickets for SUVs . A popular example of cultural jamming

Détournement - Misplaced Pages Continue

2688-401: The mainstream market seeks the very same brand of individuality that the foundation promotes; thus they see the foundation as promoting capitalist values. The Blackspot Shoes campaign has stirred heated debate, as Adbusters admits to using the same marketing technique which it denounces other companies for using by originally purchasing much advertising space for the shoe. Adbusters launched

2752-452: The masses, similar to the development of popular art before the 20th century. However, the term media culture implies that this culture is largely a product of mass media . Another related term is image culture , which further emphasizes the visual and symbolic aspects of media influence. " Popular culture and the mass media have a symbiotic relationship: each depends on the other in an intimate collaboration." The news media draws from

2816-453: The media conglomerates. Kalle Lasn declared the ruling a success and said, "After twenty years of legal struggle, the courts have finally given us permission to take on the media corporations and hold them up to public scrutiny." Culture jamming is the primary means through which Adbusters challenges consumerism. The magazine was described by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter in their book The Rebel Sell as "the flagship publication of

2880-726: The mental ethic, trying to clean up the toxic areas of our minds. You can't recycle and be a good environmental citizen, then watch four hours of television and get consumption messages pumped at you. Adbusters describes itself as anti-advertising: it blames advertising for playing a central role in creating and maintaining consumer culture. This argument is based on the premise that the advertising industry goes to great effort and expense to associate desire and identity with commodities. Adbusters believes that advertising has unjustly "colonized" public, discursive and psychic spaces, by appearing in movies, sports and even schools, so as to permeate modern culture. Adbusters's stated goals include combating

2944-461: The negative effects of advertising and empowering its readers to regain control of culture, encouraging them to ask "Are we consumers and citizens?" Since Adbusters concludes that advertising conditions people to look to external sources, to define their own personal identities, the magazine advocates a "natural and authentic self apart from the consumer society". The magazine aims to provoke anti-consumerist feelings. By juxtaposing text and images,

3008-781: The new social activist movement of the information age." As anti-capitalist or opposed to capitalism, it publishes the reader-supported, advertising-free Adbusters , an activist magazine devoted to challenging consumerism . The magazine has an international circulation peaking at 120,000 in the late 2000s with circulation of 60,000 in 2022. Past and present contributors to the magazine include Jonathan Barnbrook , Morris Berman , Brendan Connell , Simon Critchley , David Graeber , Michael Hardt , Chris Hedges , Bill McKibben , Jim Munroe , David Orrell , Douglas Rushkoff , Matt Taibbi , Slavoj Žižek , and others. Adbusters has launched numerous international campaigns, including Buy Nothing Day , TV Turnoff Week and Occupy Wall Street , and

3072-545: The objective reality of the Spectacle, thus creating a window for criticism. In the United States, Frank Discussion is widely known for his use of détournement in his works dating from the late 1970s through the present, particularly with the Feederz . The use of détournement by Barbara Kruger familiarised many with the technique, and it was extensively and effectively used as part of the early HIV/AIDS activism of

3136-480: The other hand, makes it possible for the images produced by the spectacle get altered and subverted so that rather than supporting the status quo , their meaning becomes changed in order to put across a more radical or oppositional message. Guy Debord and Gil J. Wolman categorized détourned elements into two types: minor détournements and deceptive détournements . Minor détournements are détournements of elements that in themselves are of no real importance such as

3200-496: The public space. On 13 September 2004, Adbusters filed a lawsuit against six major Canadian television broadcasters (including CanWest Global , Bell Globemedia , CHUM Ltd. , and the CBC ) for refusing to air Adbusters videos in the television commercial spots that Adbusters attempted to purchase. Most broadcasters refused the commercials, fearing the ads would upset other advertisers as well as violate business principles by "contaminating

3264-403: The public's access to the airwaves. Although it supports these causes, the foundation instead situates the battle of the mind at the center of its political agenda. Fighting to counter pro-consumerist advertising is done not as a means to an end, but as the end in itself. This shift in emphasis is a crucial element of mental environmentalism. The subtitle of Adbusters magazine is "The Journal of

SECTION 50

#1732776715077

3328-478: The purity of media environments designed exclusively for communicating commercial messages". The lawsuit claims that Adbusters' freedom of expression was unjustly limited by the refusals. Adbusters believes the public deserves a right to be presented with viewpoints that differ from the standard. Under Section 3 of the Broadcasting Act, television is a public space allowing ordinary citizens to possess

3392-529: The real flash point for the Media Foundation. It seemed that Lasn and Schmaltz's commercial was too controversial to air on the CBC. An environmental message that challenged the large forestry companies was considered 'advocacy advertising' and was disallowed, even though the 'informational' messages that glorified clearcutting were OK." The foundation was born out of their belief that citizens do not have

3456-545: The recuperation of détournement if ever there was one. Klein's arguments about irony reifying rather than breaking down power structures are echoed by Slavoj Žižek . Žižek argues that the kind of distance opened up by détournement is the condition of possibility for ideology to operate: by attacking and distancing oneself from the sign-systems of capital, the subject creates a fantasy of transgression that "covers up" their actual complicity with capitalism as an overarching system. In contrast, scholars are very fond of pointing out

3520-549: The same access to the information flows as corporations. One of the foundation's key campaigns continues to be the Media Carta, a "movement to enshrine The Right to Communicate in the constitutions of all free nations, and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." The foundation notes that concern over the flow of information goes beyond the desire to protect democratic transparency, freedom of speech or

3584-586: The same rights as advertising agencies and corporations to purchase 30 seconds of airtime from major broadcasters. There has been talk that if Adbusters wins in Canadian court, they will file similar lawsuits against major U.S. broadcasters that also refused the advertisements . CNN is the only network that has allowed several of the foundation's commercials to run. On 3 April 2009, the British Columbia Court of Appeal unanimously overturned

3648-568: The target audience, so that it can appreciate the opposition of the new message. The artist or commentator making the variation can reuse only some of the characteristic elements of the originating work. Détournement is similar to satirical parody , but employs more direct reuse or faithful mimicry of the original works rather than constructing a new work which merely alludes strongly to the original. It may be contrasted with recuperation , in which originally subversive works and ideas are themselves appropriated by mainstream media. Détournement, on

3712-549: The technique can be seen in action in the present day when looking at the work of Culture Jammers including the Cacophony Society , Billboard Liberation Front , monochrom , Occupy Movements and Adbusters , whose "subvertisements" "detourn" Nike adverts, for example. In this case, the original advertisement's imagery is altered in order to draw attention to said company's policy of shifting their production base to cheap-labour third-world " free trade zones ". However,

3776-463: The work of scientists and scholars , presenting it to the general public with an emphasis on elements that are inherently appealing or astonishing. For example, giant pandas , a species native to remote Chinese woodlands, have gained significant recognition in popular culture , while parasitic worms , despite their greater practical importance, have not. Both scientific facts and news stories are often altered during popular dissemination, sometimes to

3840-443: The work of Swiss graphic designer Ernst Bettler as "one of the greatest design interventions on record", unaware that Bettler's story was an elaborate hoax . "Media Carta" is a charter challenging the corporate control of the public airwaves and means of communication. The goal is to "make the public airwaves truly public, and not just a corporate domain." Over 30,000 people have signed the document voicing their desire to reclaim

3904-567: Was a "Rethink the Cool" leaflet, inviting wearers to join a movement, and two spots – one for drawing their own logos and another on the toe for "kicking corporate ass." There are three versions of the Blackspot Sneaker. The V1 is designed to resemble the Nike -owned Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars (Nike bought Converse in 2003). There is also a V1 in "fiery red." The V2 is designed by Canadian shoe designer John Fluevog . It

SECTION 60

#1732776715077

3968-453: Was accused of antisemitism after running an article titled "Why won't anyone say they are Jewish?" The article compiled a list of neoconservative supporters within the Bush administration and marked the names of those it believed to be Jewish with a black dot. It questioned why, given Israel's role, the political implications of this Jewish neoconservative influence on U.S. foreign policy in

4032-408: Was deceptive anti-environmentalist propaganda, responded by producing the "Talking Rainforest" anti-ad in which an old-growth tree explains to a sapling that "a tree farm is not a forest." But the duo proved to be unable to buy airtime on the same stations that had aired the forest-industry ad. According to a former Adbusters employee, "The CBC 's reaction to the proposed television commercial created

4096-670: Was founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz, a duo of award-winning documentary filmmakers living in Vancouver. Since the early 1980s, Lasn had been making films that explored the spiritual and cultural lessons the West could learn from the Japanese experience with capitalism. In 1988, the British Columbia Council of Forest Industries, the "voice" of the logging industry, was facing tremendous public pressure from

#76923