Adbusters Media Foundation

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The Adbusters Media Foundation ( English : Ad (vertisement) busters for "the advertising crackers" ) is a non-profit, consumer-critical organization that was founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver , Canada. The foundation publishes the magazine Adbusters ( ISSN  0847-9097 ), currently with a circulation of 120,000. This is ad-free and is borne by the readership and the members or activists. According to the title (adbusters = people who let advertisements blow up), she initially dealt mainly with advertising; meanwhile the magazine turns to the effects of consumption, social issues and international politics. Adbusters has started numerous international campaigns ("social marketing campaigns"), for example the " Buy Nothing Day" , the "TV-free week" TV Turnoff Week and, now with considerable echo, the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Adbusters prints numerous, also critical, letters to the editor.

Adbusters is affiliated with similar organizations in other countries, for example L'association Résistance à l'Aggression Publicitaire or Casseurs de pub in France, Adbusters Norge in Norway, Adbusters Sverige in Sweden and Culture Jammers in Japan.

Goal setting

The official program of Adbusters is:

“We are a worldwide network of artists, activists, writers, rascals, students, educators, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social movement of the information age. Our goal is the overthrow of the existing power structures and a clear change of direction in our way of life in the 21st century. "
"Adbusters is basically an ecological magazine that studies the relationship between people and the environment, materially as well as spiritually."

The organization comments on social trends in developed countries. Its main goal is to reduce the influence as well as the predominance of advertising and consumption .

“We're going to change the way information flows, how institutions wield power, how the food, fashion, automotive and cultural industries set the tone. Above all, we will change the way we deal with the mass media and we will regain the way in which a distinction is made between what is important and what is unimportant in society. "

Adbusters' attitude reflects ideas of Situationism ( Situationist International ), Marxism and also the Freudians. It describes egalitarian and eco-social principles.

subjects

The Blackspot Campaign

In 2004 the Media Foundation started selling “Blackspot” shoes with the black dot as an “anti-brand”. The project is intended as an anti-capitalist experiment. With every pair of shoes, a share in the shoe company is acquired at the same time, with the right to decide on new projects and the use of the profits via a website. The best-known product is the Blackspot casual shoe, made from organic hemp and used car tires. Other ideas emerged from this project, such as Blackspot Music and Blackspot Soda Water, with the aim of competing with large companies that are fighting them.

Media Charter

On September 13, 2004, Adbusters filed a lawsuit against six major Canadian television stations, including CBC / Radio-Canada , for refusing to broadcast Adbusters spots. Most broadcasters justified this with their company policy. The complaint is based on the curtailment of freedom of expression through the refusal of the institutions to broadcast spots by Adbusters. In the event of success in Canadian courts, Adbusters may also want to sue in American courts because US stations also refused to broadcast Adbusters spots.

True Cost Economics

According to Adbusters, many problems in developed countries can be traced back to the neoclassical theory of economics, which leaves no room for moral action. Adbusters therefore supports “True Cost Economics”, the cost calculation taking into account the “true” or all costs, i.e. the consequences of a product for people and the environment. This also includes the taxation of products that endanger the environment and that are also perceived as socially harmful for people ( external effect ). In a typical consumer society, consumers are not burdened with costs such as overseas shipping, long-term environmental damage, or underpaid workers. With taxation, these “external” and hidden costs should flow into the calculation for a product.

Mental environment

The primary concern is to restrict the expansion of commerce into public and increasingly also into private life. Advertising is becoming increasingly invasive and intrusive, such as: B. the appropriation of public space, schools, waiting rooms, hospitals, toilets, elevators and much more. Ethical boundaries are being exceeded more and more frequently. According to Adbusters, advertising conveys a false sense of power, spreads meaningless values, but plays a major psychological role in many cultures. The creation of artificial demand through advertising prevents a healthy state of mind and a meaningful life.

In addition, the organization turns against the mentality of exaggeration, manipulation, staging and disinformation in the public media. It advocates the preservation of a mental free space and is convinced that the mental environment is subject to the tragedy of the commons (privatization of a good that belongs to the general public, in this case the free space, the mental environment).

Neo- Luddism

On a variety of occasions, Adbusters made reference to the alleged imminent demise of mankind caused by technology. Humanity is in decline and without profound change there is no future. Adbusters sees a connection between the growing dissatisfaction of the people, which is expressed in the increase in depression, and technical progress. The main points of criticism that Adbusters expresses in relation to technical progress are:

  • too high and therefore risky development speed,
  • a direction of development that is harmful,
  • a direction of development that serves capitalist purposes.

Adbusters is against genetically modified foods and the current developments in agroforestry because they are harmful to physical and mental health. Genetic manipulation and patent rights on living organisms are also rejected.

Another concern of Adbusters is the increasing use of psychotropic drugs. It is particularly critical of the pharmaceutical industry who do not care about patient health, the government that approves risky drugs, the doctors who are too willingly prescribing such drugs, and the patients who are too willing to give in to the medication .

war

Topics that have come more into focus at Adbusters in the recent past are world conflicts, especially the Middle East conflict and the Iraq / Afghanistan war. An entire issue of the magazine was devoted to the necessity and reasons for invading Iraq in 2003 and another to the history of American wars. According to Adbusters, there is a link between terrorism and American foreign policy that they believe to be flawed. Furthermore, there would be a connection between a country's foreign policy and the lifestyle of its people.

Culture jamming

Adbusters is known as the flagship of the culture jamming movement. In particular, the magazine is known for its culture jamming campaigns, with images of modified advertising posters or slogans often being printed in the magazine. Culture jamming is seen as a public display of the consequences of over-consumption. Advertising slogans and images are changed in a clever and creative way, so that the message becomes ridiculous or even the opposite. Similar actions include Google bombs , flash mobs and false parking tickets for SUV vehicles. Culture Jamming aims to create a great contrast between the company's image and the actual consequences of its policies. Since it is a form of protest, as much publicity as possible should be created. Adbusters calls this "seeping up activism", encourages its readers to take such actions and prints good examples. This type of culture jamming has its roots in the actions of the situationists mentioned at the beginning of the article, especially in their concept of “going into the opposite” (détournement). This means “flipping” messages so that they convey different meanings. In the context of culture jamming, this means modifying symbols, logos and advertising slogans, especially those that are understood as carriers of late capitalist messages, often to a significant but only minor extent, in order to undermine the “monologue of the ruling order” ( Debord ).

criticism

Adbusters is accused of expressing itself in style and form similar to the media and products it attacks. This applies in particular to the glossy design, which makes the magazine too expensive, and to the fact that the trendy styling is intended to cover up rather mediocre articles. This was particularly true of the Blackspot shoe campaign, about which it is said that its very existence proves that "no logical person could believe in any tension between 'mainstream' and 'alternative' culture".

In the 2004 book The Rebel Sell: Why the culture can not be jammed (de: consumption rebels: the myth of the counterculture ), the authors assert Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter that each alternative and subversive itself would Adbusters, it all the more attractive to the mainstream will. Consumers were looking for exclusivity and social recognition. Adbusters, on the other hand, described them as thoughtless conformists. It is argued that the mainstream market is looking for the kind of individuality that Adbusters is promoting; Suppression is not a goal of the market, so Adbusters' teaching represents “the true spirit of capitalism”.

Adbusters came under heavy criticism for alleged anti-Semitism. In addition to its very critical contributions to Israel, it brought an article in which many supporters of the Iraq war and the Bush administration were identified as Jews and asked why this fact and the possible effects on US Middle East policy are not openly discussed.

The Blackspot shoes have been criticized for being originally intended to be produced by unorganized workers in China. Now the shoe is made by organized workers in Portugal.

Finally, Adbusters has been criticized in the past for its pro-Cuban stance. An article about Cuban relations to American culture allegedly represented too much the socialist side and insufficiently addressed the threat to civil liberties in Cuba.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ bndjapan.org
  2. ↑ adbusters.cool.ne.jp ( Memento from April 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ About Adbusters. ( Memento of May 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Adbusters.org .
  4. ↑ Adbusters Issue # 25. Miy / June 2005.
  5. ↑ Issue 56 ( Memento of March 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 12, 2015.
  6. ↑ The Four Horsemen ( Memento December 10, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), Issue 58, accessed on May 12, 2015.
  7. ^ I Robot ( Memento of December 10, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), issue 58, accessed on May 12, 2015.
  8. ↑ Issue 58 ( Memento of March 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 12, 2015.
  9. ↑ Caging the Devil ( Memento of 10 December 2005 at the Internet Archive ) Vol. 57, accessed on May 12, 2015.
  10. ↑ Put Big Pharma on a Short Leash ( Memento of December 10, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), Ed. 57, accessed on May 12, 2015.
  11. ↑ Prozac Spotlight ( Memento of May 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Issue 59 ( Memento of December 10, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 12, 2015.
  13. ↑ Issue 53 ( Memento of May 27, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 12, 2015.
  14. ^ A b c Heath, Joseph and Potter, Andrew. The Rebel Sell . Harper Perennial, 2004.
  15. ^ Carrie McLaren: Culture Jamming (TM): Brought To You By Adbusters. ( Memento from August 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) In: Stay Free!
  16. ^ Kalle Lasn: Why won't anyone say they are Jewish? (Why does nobody say they are Jewish?) ( Memento from June 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: AdBusters , March / April 2004.
  17. ^ Katie Raynes-Goldie: Race Baiting: AdBusters' Listing of Jewish Neo-cons The Latest Wacko Twist in Lefty Mag's Remake. ( Memento of October 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Now Toronto of March 24, 2004.
  18. ↑ Linda Baker: Made in the USofA? ( Memento of November 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on Salon.com , February 2004.