Culture jamming is a subverting phenomenon which can be seen in forms like TV programme, product images, advertising and so on. Culture jammers are simply aimed at exposing questionable political issues behind commercial culture or emphatically illustrate the dark side of an object which can not be seen from surface or is hided. Commercial ad is really popular at the moment, many jamming artists jam culture by re-figure original ads.
"Something not far from the surface of the public psyche is delighted to see the icons of corporate power subverted and mocked," Naomi Klein writes, a New York journalist . Take a McDonald's ad for example, this is a video called McDonald's Culture Jam Montage from YouTube. In this video, at the beginning, we can see some scene about ronald McDonald playing with kids and several colorful burgers and chips images keep moving. Approximately at 0:28, the happy atmosphere changed, followed by a illustration about obesity trends among U.S. adults. After that, some obese people come out and followed by an visual animation which showing people how a little chicken by killed and cooked. At the end of this video, there are some short strips displayed. It's about the results by over eating McDonald's. Especially at the end, a close-up of a sick man's gut which is gathering up by a doctor is really make viewers feel disgusting, make McDonald's disgusting. In normal times, McDonald's consumers don't realize those dark fact. On the contrary, what they can see normally are some yummy hamburger images and the new McDonald's foods ads. I believe some one won't eat burgers in a
while after they saw the video.
In my opinion, the main function of this video is not letting people stop eating McDonald's but expose extreme truth. A good jam, in other words, is an "X-ray of the subconscious of a campaign, uncovering not an opposite meaning but the deeper truth hiding beneath the layers of advertising euphemisms." In the movie Super Size Me, the main character Morgan Spur lock consumed nothing but food from McDonald's, an experiment in bad living that frames a jaunty critique of junk food. This movie is an entertaining statement of the obvious, but it let viewers thinking about a question- Is the food enjoyment more important than health? Through culture jamming, people can understand more things which can not be seen from surface. It's also a good tool of exposing social problems.
"Something not far from the surface of the public psyche is delighted to see the icons of corporate power subverted and mocked," Naomi Klein writes, a New York journalist . Take a McDonald's ad for example, this is a video called McDonald's Culture Jam Montage from YouTube. In this video, at the beginning, we can see some scene about ronald McDonald playing with kids and several colorful burgers and chips images keep moving. Approximately at 0:28, the happy atmosphere changed, followed by a illustration about obesity trends among U.S. adults. After that, some obese people come out and followed by an visual animation which showing people how a little chicken by killed and cooked. At the end of this video, there are some short strips displayed. It's about the results by over eating McDonald's. Especially at the end, a close-up of a sick man's gut which is gathering up by a doctor is really make viewers feel disgusting, make McDonald's disgusting. In normal times, McDonald's consumers don't realize those dark fact. On the contrary, what they can see normally are some yummy hamburger images and the new McDonald's foods ads. I believe some one won't eat burgers in a
while after they saw the video.In my opinion, the main function of this video is not letting people stop eating McDonald's but expose extreme truth. A good jam, in other words, is an "X-ray of the subconscious of a campaign, uncovering not an opposite meaning but the deeper truth hiding beneath the layers of advertising euphemisms." In the movie Super Size Me, the main character Morgan Spur lock consumed nothing but food from McDonald's, an experiment in bad living that frames a jaunty critique of junk food. This movie is an entertaining statement of the obvious, but it let viewers thinking about a question- Is the food enjoyment more important than health? Through culture jamming, people can understand more things which can not be seen from surface. It's also a good tool of exposing social problems.
Thanks Chris, some interesting points here, but a couple of things to watch out for - make sure you are spelling correctly, for example, it's McDonalds, not McDinalds, and also, when you are quoting, please use quote marks, for example, Naomi Klein on the "X-ray of the subconcious" and the Supersize me promotional material which calls it a "jaunty critique of junk food."
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