Cultural Jamming is when
people rework or repurpose corporate logos or advertisements as a means of
protest. Cultural jammers are anti-consumerism and believe that corporations no
longer see citizens as people but merely consumers. As such, they believe that
these corporations should not be allowed to infiltrate our public space with
their corrupt consumer messages. As a means of creating a dialogue with both
the public and corporations, cultural jammers dustup or subvert advertisements
to point out how these corporations are trying to dictate and influence our
cultural and social lives.
Their are many different
forms of cultural jamming that can rang from remaking advertisements, to pranking politicians
and celebrities, to creating commercial parodies.
No matter what the form, cultural jammers attempt to make citizens think about
what these advertisements, organizations, and high profile people, are saying
and how the messages and images they are conveying are harmful to our society.
Cultural jamming is a
useful way for citizens to talk back to advertisers and corporations. These
organizations pay to advertise in our public sphere and we, as citizens have no
say in deciding what is and is not acceptable. If the public sphere is suppose
to be that which belongs to the people, then those people should have a voice
in determining what images are being shown and what messages are being
conveyed. Corporations have infiltrated almost every aspect of our lives and
whether we noticed it or not, these advertisements are sending us messages
about how we should look, how we should act, what we should wear, what we
should buy and what happiness and success look like.
Society needs more
cultural jammers. We cannot let corporations take over our public sphere.
Cultural jamming tells corporations that we are not just consumers and we will
not just blindly accept their messages. If there is no one fighting against
these corporations then they win, and we risk losing our voices within the
public sphere, and possibly the the public sphere itself.