ad-busters, the counterattack mevoy dj
I www.adbusters.org In the a collage in the USA, a student was sent home wearing a T-Shirt with the brand name Coca-Cola emblazoned across it. They said it was against school rules. Unbelievable, huh? The real reason was they were celebrating "Pepsi Day" that day. Advertising envelopes everything. TV programmes, the magazines we read, the films we see, music festivals, the clothes we wear... they're all sponsored. Brand names, in an effort to differentiate one product from another, are quickly changing from mere names into something approaching cult status. Anything can be used as a basis for advertising. There is nowhere advertising doesn't reach. Are there no limits to it? The "Pepsi Day" anecdote, which is quite true, is also a clear example of a new trend that is forming. This new trend can be felt in the USA more than anywhere. Several associations there who feel the line must be drawn somewhere, have set a campaign in motion to protect schools from advertising. If that's what the situation there is like at the moment, you hardly need to imagine what's waiting for us just round the corner.
Advertising doesn't just sell products anymore; it sells lifestyles. It uses all the marketing tricks it has at its disposal to lay down the law on lifestyles, physical appearance and sex. Advertising, insofar as it's a creation process, is chock-a-block with ideas, and the world of publicity uses the most creative artists, designers and photographers in order to fulfil their goals.
If we were to lump all the creative and communicative power of everybody working in advertising all over the world together, we would be faced with something of staggering potential. That was the conclusion reached by reached by a group of people working in publicity and they decided to put their effort and creativity to other uses.
The Media Foundation is the name they've given to themselves and their goal is to awaken people's consciousness and create the means needed to protect people from publicity campaigns. Some of those involved are playing ball on both sides of the fence; they work for the major advertising agencies during the day, and they design contra-publicity against their employers' clients' giant advertising campaigns at night. They don't have the same economic resources as the big brand names, but they are certainly their equal when it comes to creative power of the imagination.
The Media Foundation from Canada use their magazine Adbusters ( www.adbusters.org) to turn the multinationals' publicity campaign messages on their heads by using the same aesthetics and graphics that they use. Internet is where they carry out most of their work, but as they themselves put it; "Internet isn't that influential yet. If you want to influence public opinion, you need to use television. You can't change society unless you get some kind of coverage from the mass media".
More and more people are deserting the advertising army and they have joined up with those involved in contrapublicity. This is just the start, the counterattack is on its way.
The power of brand names
Have you ever thought that the future of the world depends on the commercial goals of a few multinationals? Has a blinding ad ever caused you to rush out and but something? What made you buy that? How did it blind you so?
"No Logo" investigate the idea behind brand names, the role played by multinationals and the overall means used by advertising to condition the way we live today. It also observes the recently created and increasing movement against all of the aforementioned.
The book "No Logo" has sold about 500,000 copies all over the world since its publication two years ago. Interviews from all around the planet were added to four years of researching documentation. An example of this was their trip to the Philippines to interview women who work in the textile industry there. They are paid 2 dollars for a fourteen hour day. The goods they make are later sold for 200 dollars in the "civilised world". Naomi Klein, ex-editor of This Magazine and one-time columnist in the Toronto Star is the current head of the magazine Saturday Night. Ah! A clothes company has decided to use "No Logo" as a name for one of its clothes ranges; a clear example of the success the book has enjoyed.
"You're running because you want that raise, to be all you can be. But it's not easy when you work sixty hours a week making sneakers in an Indonesian factory and your friends disappear when they ask for a raise.
So think globally before you decide "it's cool to wear Nike"
Advertising doesn't just sell products anymore; it sells lifestyles. It uses all the marketing tricks it has at its disposal to lay down the law on lifestyles, physical appearance and sex. Advertising, insofar as it's a creation process, is chock-a-block with ideas, and the world of publicity uses the most creative artists, designers and photographers in order to fulfil their goals.
If we were to lump all the creative and communicative power of everybody working in advertising all over the world together, we would be faced with something of staggering potential. That was the conclusion reached by reached by a group of people working in publicity and they decided to put their effort and creativity to other uses.
The Media Foundation is the name they've given to themselves and their goal is to awaken people's consciousness and create the means needed to protect people from publicity campaigns. Some of those involved are playing ball on both sides of the fence; they work for the major advertising agencies during the day, and they design contra-publicity against their employers' clients' giant advertising campaigns at night. They don't have the same economic resources as the big brand names, but they are certainly their equal when it comes to creative power of the imagination.
The Media Foundation from Canada use their magazine Adbusters ( www.adbusters.org) to turn the multinationals' publicity campaign messages on their heads by using the same aesthetics and graphics that they use. Internet is where they carry out most of their work, but as they themselves put it; "Internet isn't that influential yet. If you want to influence public opinion, you need to use television. You can't change society unless you get some kind of coverage from the mass media".
More and more people are deserting the advertising army and they have joined up with those involved in contrapublicity. This is just the start, the counterattack is on its way.
The power of brand names
Have you ever thought that the future of the world depends on the commercial goals of a few multinationals? Has a blinding ad ever caused you to rush out and but something? What made you buy that? How did it blind you so?
"No Logo" investigate the idea behind brand names, the role played by multinationals and the overall means used by advertising to condition the way we live today. It also observes the recently created and increasing movement against all of the aforementioned.
The book "No Logo" has sold about 500,000 copies all over the world since its publication two years ago. Interviews from all around the planet were added to four years of researching documentation. An example of this was their trip to the Philippines to interview women who work in the textile industry there. They are paid 2 dollars for a fourteen hour day. The goods they make are later sold for 200 dollars in the "civilised world". Naomi Klein, ex-editor of This Magazine and one-time columnist in the Toronto Star is the current head of the magazine Saturday Night. Ah! A clothes company has decided to use "No Logo" as a name for one of its clothes ranges; a clear example of the success the book has enjoyed.
"You're running because you want that raise, to be all you can be. But it's not easy when you work sixty hours a week making sneakers in an Indonesian factory and your friends disappear when they ask for a raise.
So think globally before you decide "it's cool to wear Nike"
