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Subvertising

Subvertising is a portmanteau of subvert and advertising. It is seen as a type of resistance movement, dedicated to exposing the domination, control and cultural influence that advertisements hold against us. A subvertisment can also be referred to as a meme hack and can be a part of social hacking or culture jamming. Subvetising targets the capitalist system, which deceives the world with nonexistent needs, truths, threats, produced identities, values, and feelings through the tools of communication. Individuals and organizations that produce these 'subverts' main intent is to mimic the image and meaning of a particular ad, to essentially stimulate a shocking 'double-take', in order for audiences to realize that the original content has been altered in order to promote a cultivating message. However, oftentimes they can also take form in a new image as well, and are mostly represented in a satirical manner. Subverts and other forms of radical street art, are what Marshall McLuhan in 1968 predicted would become the Third World War "a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation." The main idea of a well structured subvert is to stimulate and encourage critical thinking and promote alternative ideas through an anti-consumerist illustration and bring about change. Although they are often times associated with anti-corporate perspectives, subverts are essentially virtual puns which can be used by anyone. Global products such as Coca Cola and Nike spread their messages through their corporate identities and advertisements. Culture jammers decode the products that are advertised to the public by techniques such as subversion in order to uncover the "true" intent of the advertisement which oftentimes simulates some type of consumeristic driven motives. While the contradiction between message and medium is shown, the mediator becomes a focus point of the discussion. For instance, subvertisers have changed the commonly used Coca Cola slogan, "Enjoy Coca Cola" to "Enjoy Capitalism" in order to evoke a message towards the brand itself and the public, by implying that it is driven by consumeristic motives. Advertisements sell an identity rather than a product and this is this is what manipulates consumption decisions. By playing a trick on consumers, advertisers carefully construct these false realities and give the public the impression that by consuming these products, they can rid themselves of their hidden insecurities brought forth carefully by advertising companies. And driven to achieve greatness, power, success, beauty, etc., through the consumption of a particular product. Subvertising mocks these types of advertisements by showing consumers that it is in fact a capitalist trap, according to various anti-consumer organizations. Subverts are ultimately most effective when they succeed in planting a seed in the viewer's mind.

American corporate flag

History

The use of logos and slogans first appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, as the industrial revolution and media reproduction processes gained momentum. For companies to succeed, it was important for them to distinguish themselves apart from other competitors in this newly growing marketplace. Since then, our mediated culture has been swayed by multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns, which often include logos, slogans, trademarks, and images associated with a company's advertisement. Culture jammers, have since tried to unveil the various methods of domination that advertisers use to persuade a society on a particular idea. According to Mark Dery, the term "culture jamming" was first used by a San Francisco based band called, Negativland to illustrate forms of anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist media sabotage. And is now used to depict groups of individuals who aspire to destabilize and challenge the dominant methods of advertising within society. It is important to note the history of culture jamming, because culture jammers were some of the first individuals to intertwine the idea of subversion and advertising into one term and given it meaning. These subertisvements that culture jammers create, are intended to challenge the methods of domination, and the cultural influence it holds on society. In the 1960's French avant-garde artists and intellectuals created an anarchist movement called, Situationism, which critiqued all aspects of capitalism. Situationists became known as the first postmodern cultural revolutionaries, which believed strongly in vandalism and saw sabotage as a way of destroying capitalism and its outputs. The movement, which was primarily led by Guy Debord, has since paved way for other anarchist movements, inspired by their radical traditions. Bakhtin referred to some of the Situationist's work as "carnivalesque" moments, which fought against the "spectacle" of everyday life. "According to the Situationists, the spectacle stifles free will and spontaneity, replacing media-sponsored advertising with a theatrical performance that obscures and legitimizes 'violent production and consumption.' Like the Situationists, culture jammers reject the spectacle in favour of authenticity." Since then, resistance movements much like this one, have helped stimulate a growing community of activists against the idea of commercial advertising, all while, expressing their beliefs through the modernized idea of subvertising.

Subvertisment

Organizations

Adbusters

Over the years, culture jammers have formed various communities to advocate against commercial advertising, where they can freely create different types of subvertisments reflecting mainstream ads. Examples of various subvertisments used to evoke this type of activism can further be seen on Adbusters, Adbusters is a Vancouver based non-profit magazine, which brings together a community of culture jammers and other types of advocates, all of which stand behind the strong belief of undermining the methods of persuasion through the use of advertisements. The organization was founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz, and describes itself as a network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs. Lasn explains that subvertising is metaphor for stopping the flow of consumer-culture-saturated media. This method is intended to exploit advertisments and promote consumer awareness in a pro-activist manner. He also mentions that subvertising acts as a "demarketing" strategy, by "unselling the the consumer society and turning the incredible power of marketing against itself."

The Yes Men

The Yes Men group is a duo of anti-corporate activists which perform what they call "identity correction" through impersonating corporate and government spokespeople to expose their "true" character and spread anti-capitalist messages. Creators Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos, main goal is to raise awareness about social and political issues related to mainstream media. They have worked on projects which have spoofed political figures and large corporations such as George W. Bush, US Chamber of Commerce, The New York Times, and many more. Over the years they have produced 3 films titled, The Yes Men (2003), The Yes Men Fix the World (2009), and The Yes Men Are Revolting (2014), which feature their on-going parodies and spoofs about current social and political issues, in order to inform audiences on what they believe to be the truth about these government entities and corporations along with the leaders standing behind them. The Yes Men often use a satirical approach to their projects, while posing as a powerful entity, making ridiculous and shocking comments which reflect the hidden truths of the individual or group being targeted. Using different media outlets, The Yes Men try to capture the attention of a large audience in order to promote their messages. Their pranks can be categorized as a form of subversion due to the manipulation and rearrangement of many political advertisements, websites, campaigns, etc.

Types

Memes

Richard Dawkins, ethologist and evolutionary biologist, first coined the term 'meme' as a unit of cultural ideas, practices or symbols that evolve, mutate and compete for reproductive success. According to Dawkins, a good meme hack will successfully subvert using a memetic code and will go viral with the aid of a photograph, an email or word of mouth. With the growing help of our information technology era, memes are promptly being shared through various forms of social media outlets as well. Dawkins suggests that the idea of a persuasive meme can in fact change individuals minds and behaviors so much that it possesses the power to alter political, cultural and economic views on particular past and current affairs.

Billboards

The use of billboards has dated back to the early 15th century. Comprised of large posters, mainly on the sides of buildings with limited but still noticeable commercial value. As infrastructure advanced, the billboard business thrived, billboards appeared on the sides of roads and highways comprised of mostly corporate advertisements. In 1977, an anti-consumerist group emerged by the name of, Billboard Liberation Front, in San Fransisco, USA. Founders, Jack Napier and Irving Glikk would alter and mock various billboards, and raise public awareness against corporate advertising. It was founded on the idea that citizens can, and should, employ their imagination in changing the messages of corporate advertising. Billboards they say, should be used as a medium for public expression, protest, and social communication, rather than for private commercialism. These messages acted as a result of protest and public form of expressionism, both of which we see increasingly more of in this present day and age. The BLF also believes billboards, in comparison to other forms of media outlets, are inescapable. People are capable of maintaining their everyday life without the use of newspaper, radio, television and telephones. Whereas, with billboards they are harder to avoid and control.

Theory

Semiotics

Semiotic theory is effective when trying to understand the methods of both advertising and and subvertising. Semiotic theory is a philosophical theory of signs and symbols that both sides use to manipulate, utilizing the same means for achieving different ends. Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and American philosopher C.S Pierce are two major contributors to the early development of semiotics. Pierce invented the the terms icon, index and symbol to identify various kinds of signs. While Saussure defined the basic unit of a semiotic 'sign' as being composed of signifier and signified. He believes that the sign does not mean anything by itself but rather the meaning of a sign is most understood when it is amongst other signs, because they are categorized by a social unwritten rule. If advertisements produce artificial realities through encoding, they can be collapsed by decoding as subverting does.

Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations between signs are important to understand in relation to the act of culture jamming and subverting. Advertising uses both visual and verbal paradigms. Which include concepts like, intelligence, beauty, freedom, power, fun, etc. Each advertisement is a syntagm of visual and verbal signifiers. Subvertisers take an advertisement and make a syntagmatic change to it, which causes a paradigmatic shift. For instance, Nike (the signifier) uses successful sportsmen to utilize for both their success and fame. Nike uses the illusionary opportunity to be like them by creating signs and slogans such as their most famously known, "Just Do It". However, the signified (audiences) are presented with the idea that, if they purchase a Nike product, they are capable of attaining the same success and fame as the professional athletes in Nike's advertisements.

Guerrilla communication

Guerrilla communication refers to an attempt to provoke subversive effects through interventions in the process of communication. It takes form of a militant political position and directly targets actions within the space of social communication. Different from other militant positions, it doesn't aim to destroy the codes and signs of power and control, but instead distorts and disfigures their meanings as a means of protest against political and corporate power. Communication guerrillas do not intend to occupy or destroy the dominant channels of communication, but rather are concerned with subverting the messages being relayed to the public eye.

The Barthes Approach

Similar to Saussure and Pierce, Ronald Barthes worked on the theory of semiotics during the 20th century, which led him to understanding and analyzing the distinction between denotation and connotation which eventually contributed to the understanding of linguistics used in regular advertisements and subvertisments. He would interrogate certain cultural materials through the use of semiotics, in order to expose how bourgeoise society asserted its values through materialism. Barthes semiotic theory depicts the interaction between the sign and cultural values to the audience.

Criticism

Consumer driven organizations and political entities oppose the use of subvertising for the obvious reasons that it imposes a threat towards their profit driven tactics used to sell products. The reason why organizations such as Adbusters and The Yes Men are labelled and classified as radical, anti-consumerist organizations, is because society has been shaped to believe that the messages being portrayed by the dominating corporations of the world are in fact true. Whereas, anti-consumerist movements and tactics such as subvertising, attempt to question that ideology through various creative approaches, such as what they would refer to as, vandalism. The intent of subverting these types of advertisements is uncover the deeper meaning behind these corporations and relay the underlying "truths" to the public, so that they are able to see the intent that corporations place towards consumers and product buying.

See Also

• Culture Jamming
• Semiotics
• Meme
• Meme hack
• Situationist International
• Free Culture movement
• The Yes Men
• The Yes Men (film)
• The Yes Men Fix the World
• The Yes Men Are Revolting
• Critical Art Ensemble
• Guerrilla communication
• Battle of Seattle (1999)
• Spin
• Brandalism

External links

• Billboard Liberation
• Spoof Ads on Adbusters
• The Space Hijackers