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Culture jamming radically transforms mass media messages, often turning them on their heads completely (Kuehn 2015; Lasn 2000). It is a form of social protest aimed at revealing underlying realities of which consumers may be unaware. The hope is that once people are made aware of these realities through culture jamming, they will change their behaviors or perhaps even band together to change those underlying realities.

The best examples of culture jamming are to be found in the magazine Adbusters and the media campaigns it sponsors. The magazine’s main targets are in the realm of consumption, especially web and magazine advertisements and billboards. The idea is to transform a corporation’s ads into anticorporate, anticonsumption advertisements (Handelman and Kozinets 2007).

The following are some examples of the ways in which culture jamming turns commercial messages inside out:

 “Tommy Sheep” is a spoof of a Tommy Hilfiger ad, with sheep (presumably representing the conformists who buy such clothing) pictured in front of a huge American flag.

 “Absolute on Ice,” spoofing an Absolut vodka ad, depicts the foot of a corpse (presumably someone killed by excessive alcohol consumption) with a toe tag.

 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) used the Burger King logo with the phrase “Murder King” to raise awareness of animal brutality in the beef industry.

 FORCE, a feminist organization, culture jammed Victoria Secret’s “Pink Loves Consent” advertising campaign by using social media to troll the company’s online brand community with the goal of starting a meaningful conversation about sexual consent (Madden et al. 2018).

 Brandalism, an activist artist movement, subverted advertisements with art at bus stops during the 2015 United Nations climate conference in Paris to promote environmental sustainability (Lekakis 2017).

These examples show the hidden realities (sickness, death, sexism, environmental problems, and other miseries) and goals (conformist consumers, obscene profits) of corporations. A broader objective is to show viewers the folly of consumer culture, which encourages the consumption of numerous harmful substances (e.g., cigarettes, alcohol) and wasteful goods and services (e.g., expensive clothing). In addition to advertisements, culture jammers create memes to spread ideas and information that challenge the status quo (Lasn 2012). For example, one meme designed by culture jammers depicts a photo of Walmart with the following words: “One of the biggest companies in the world owned by one of the richest families in America . . . holds food drive for needy employees instead of paying them a living wage” (CursedByTheDiceGods 2017).

“Absolut Impotence” is an example of culture jamming intended to counter the alcohol industry’s influence by suggesting that alcohol will negatively impact drinkers’ lives. Is this an effective way to change consumption?

Used with the permission of Adbusters Media Foundation.