Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Culture Jamming

This video was brought to my attention by someone who is taking sociology, but I thought the video was rather interesting and thought you might as well. Take a look and let us know what you think!

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

This video confuses me in a sense. To me, if an ad manages to get a reaction out of you, it is succeeding in its purpose. Just the mere fact that one goes through the day thinking about it makes the ad effective. And if someone manages to go out of their way just to find the hidden meanings and tries to violate the ad does not necessarily mean that the companies will be mad. They can also looks at it in a means of "these advertisements are getting noticed." This whole video bothers me in the fact that this women seems anal about companies with "poor" advertisements. I believe that she is to rationals and harsh when she 'breaks down' these ads.

bgarcia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bgarcia said...

I feel in a way that although I understand this lady is trying to get her message across by writing her opinions on billboards and ads I still think that in a way it is vandalism. It is a very extreme action and she may feel that the only way people are going to see her message is by writing it all over the original one, it is still morally wrong to destroy something even if you do not beleive in it. It is also illegal, and in this video altough she says she is not "condoning" cultural jamming in any way, she sort of subtly puts in persausive opinions on why she does it. She how can she not condone it if she even openly admits she does it and why she does it. Also, a company is free to advertise anything they want, that is how marketing works, as long as it is not symbolizing, condoning,or marketing anything that is illegal or discomforting they have the right to market their product any way and how much they want, especially when millions of dollars is being invested into it.

Ryan Crell said...

I definitely have mixed feelings about this video. My first reaction was that what she was doing was fine because she is speaking her mind and making people question big corporations and advertising and as much as I have a problem with powerful corporations and the influence they can have, I don't think it's possible to draw the line and say that some vandalism is ok. If I wanted to advertise my business or product, I wouldn't want anyone changing the message. I think she should be able to speak her mind and have her own opinions, but I think there are more suitable, legal ways to do so. Her argument is that she wants to respond to advertising and create a discussion. She wants to participate in her environment and speak out against media-controlling, manipulative corporations. I agree with her on the problem with the amount of advertising in society and the example of the tv above the urinal is an extremely persuasive image. Although I agree that this is a problem, I think she should speak out on the internet or by directly contacting companies, rather than "culture jamming"

David said...

In the beginning of this video it just keep repeating the phase "culture jamming" which i think it high light the main idea of this video. the girl in the video said the main reason that what she did is illegal is the big corporations have much more money. I agree her opinion. However sadly that is how our society works. People who own large amount of resources take charge of the world. And that is how the entire animal world works. But i think we always need people to against the group which is taking charge of the world.

Grant Weaver said...

The girl in this video takes it a little too far in my opinion. She just assumes that all big corporations are bad and that is not the case. Sure, their main objective is to make a profit, but some businesses make an effort to keep their customers satified and treat them fairly. I am not against her voicing her opinion on the subject, but I think she should express herself in other ways. Vandalizing advertisements is not the best way for her to get her point across. By doing this she is stereotyping all corporations according to her perconceived notions that may or may not even be true.

David Planning said...

This lady not only makes no sense but also seems a bit crazy to me. She struts around New York City seemingly by herself just slapping stickers on another person’s hard work on which they make a living off of. She goes around destroying property that she does not own just to make, in my opinion, a stupid point. She works against the whole idea of capitalism by destroying the hard work and product someone else lawfully posted, lawfully being the key word.

Michael Mernagh said...

She portrays her point in a clear and subtly interesting fashion. Like David facing Goliath, she comes across as courageous in the face of huge corporations. I think that the images of her pasting cut-outs on displays are what make this video work.

Because, as some you some pointed out, her reaction is to hypocritically try to gain mindshare by using the same tactics she deplores. She is sophomoric, but sincere.

Yang Yu said...

The video mainly focus on the great influence of culture jamming in our daily life. Smart navy-blue jacket worn by sexy ladies and men, extremely expensive French perfume on the desk in Great princess’s bedroom and an outstanding red wine displayed on the shelves in a Romaic and classic Italian restaurant, without asking for your permission, flood into your spiritual dominance. Due to such a close relationship with these jamming, they seem to be the other part of our lives, which was separated by the God and once finding them, we can no longer escape from.

The teacher in the video taking great steps wakes up public audience’s attention by sticking her “fliers” on the sexy lady’s face on the advertising billboard or on the window display from an expensive fashion shop. And when she interviewed people taking the subway, it is not beyond imagination that they had a feeling of being offensive. However, according a recent survey made in the Hong Kong by the Apple Daily journalists, most citizens were asked about the flashing and cool Jordan shoes in the billboard and expensive Hasselblads or Leicas camera on the huge screen above the central square plaza, nearly 97.4% people (retired people were excluded from the research) considered these “advertising invasion” expressing a fragrant of fashion and new being.

They were hardly aware of, to some extent, being brainwashed by these brands. “Brainwashed” here, from my point of view, has nothing to do with the evil dogma inserted by a “brutal tyrant”. It just means that if people wanted to get a basketball shoes or shots, they would instinctively come up with Nike, Addidas and Rebook. So powerful are these advertising billboards in our daily lives that they are people’s first choices to meet their particular demands. When explored deeply, these advertising campaigns launched by powerful corporation are sort of “Culture Trust” actions. Contrary to the financial control in the market for the particular product, companies utilize the ways of advertising to modify people’s consumption taste, which exclude the products from other bands.

To the advertising colony, some are against it, some are indifferent and some are affirmative. Anyway, “every man has his hobby horse” or “one man’s meal is another man’s poison.”

Kelsea Ayers said...

I just am so confused. What I got from the video is a lady sticks things on advertisements that she doesn't like? I don't really understand culture jamming. I don't see it as an art like the lady does she just is covering up other peoples art. She should just make her own and not cover others peoples stuff. I'm not really sure how I feel about the video it just confuses me and doesn't keep me interested. I had never heard of it before so t was cool to learn about something new.

Li Chen said...

I think the message – culture jamming caught my eyes. Most culture jamming focuses on subverting or observing on advertisements messages. Nowadays, many corporations convey the brand concept of customer-oriented. Ads are essential way to show products and main concepts, as well as to attract customers. This is the rule of marketing and business. I just don't like the behavior and attitude of the girl in this video. She walked across the city and posted billboards and posters over with her arguments. She said her TV had no button to help her to talk back to them who are giving opinions on TV. She thought commercial ads and programs lacked of communication with customers and customers should have right to participate and discuss with corporations. However, vandalizing billboards is an illegal behavior, even though her argument might be reasonable. She should find a better and legal way to express and convey her arguments. She has this right to show opinions, so do corporations.

Luke Treece said...

I read a book in high school called 'Culture Jammer' so this concept is pretty familiar with me. Overall, I agree that America is overwhelmed with clutter in the advertising world. Everyday we are swamped with ads on TV, internet, and just about everywhere we look. Personally, I have become accustomed to tuning these out just because they are so frequent and annoying. Although I hate the immense amount of advertisements, I would never stoop to the level of the girl in this video. I think it is quite immature that she feels the need to go around putting up stickers on advertisements that make her mad. I guess that her motive is that she might make a change in the world, but who is she kidding? The clutter will never end, so there really is no point in fighting it, in my opinion.

Ning Chen said...

This video reminds me of what I have learned in a film class. Consumerism is a main theme of movies as well as some advertisements on TV and in the street. Consumerism has some negative impact on people’s life. People are eager to buy a lot of goods, which cause them to keep working as a working machine. That’s a very smart strategy for government to manage citizen in a good order. The woman tries her utmost to raise other’s attention to her different idea. But I don’t think it’s a good way to express her personal idea basing on ruining others’ art. Culture jam itself is not wrong. I would like to hear different voices that lead me to have an objective thinking. But probably , she can find a better way to express her ideas.

Mackenzie Scharenberg said...

While I do think that we are exposed to an unreasonable amount of advertising at times, culture jamming is vandalism and I agree with why it is illegal. I agree that knowledge is power, but I think culture jammers should let other people use their own knowledge to decide when an advertisement has a hidden agenda. To me it seemed like this girl was trying to force her opinions on the rest of society the same way she argues advertising does. If people just actively think about advertisements and not just soak them all in, it just takes common sense and critical thinking to know when something is being spun.

Mingxin Tan said...

This is an interesting video which shows a girl's action against cultural jam. Indeed the girl has a good intention that help people from the rubbish info. But I think she's a little bit overactive. Some people may need those informations to decide what they want. If we say the companies's ads are telling people what to do, then the girl is persuading people what not to do. These two thing are both culture jamming to some extent.

Megan Canty said...

I do not agree with what she is doing, she is doing to us exactly what she doesn't want done to her. It is very disruptive and annoying, and most people seem to not like her doing it.

chengzhou said...

The lady is using her own way to persuade people about the culture jamming, but I don’t quite agree the way she is doing, because she is trying to use the way which her opponent uses to fight against her opponent. I think this is not quite compelling, because if she wants to defeat the culture jamming, she need to fight her own way.