Culture jamming and advertising

Looking for an idea this week, I decided to further explore culture jamming after we talked about Zach's blog on Wednesday and because the idea intrigued me in terms of how meanings are changed in texts. I eventually entered a website that was all about culture jamming. The site's opening statement explains that, "Most people still function under this rationalist model: 'Change will come if enough people understand the problem rationally and intellectually.'"

The site then argues that rationality and itellect are no longer adequate tools by themselves and that it is a struggle to understand meanings of texts. The site has a very negative opinion of the media calling it "poisonous, symbolic system," and focuses mainly on the advertising aspect of the media. Something that really made sense to me was it's view of how advertising has evolved. The site states how, in the beginning, the simple goal of advertising was to inform people about the product. However, it evolved into what it is today. The focus of advertising today is portraying the people who use the product and not the product itself. Advertising has become so much more that what is on the surface.

I agree that advertising is now a very complex way of sending a message. If one digs deep enough into the text, they will likely find numerous ideologies presented. Adveritsers do this on purpose. They spend a lot of time and money into developing an ad until they feel it demonstrates what they want it to. There are subtle things that are directed to get consumers to buy their product. But I feel like advertisers are selling themselves or a lifestyle more than they are selling a product. That's how advertisers approach it, I think. I am not a professional advertiser or makereter, but these are the ideas if have come to understand through many of the communication classes I have taken thus far.

Back to culture jamming...The site describes this as the introduction of radical ideas. We defined it as taking pleasurable texts and reworking them to send a new message. The site is dedicated to taking some popular ads and messages in today's corporate world and reworking them to have new meanings that are often comical but also catch your attention and make you think about what is really behind the ad.