Culture Jamming

The term Culture Jamming was coined by a collage band Negativland in 1984 and derives from the term radio jamming, but the practice of culture jamming has been around since the 1950’s when activists in Europe referred to themselves as situationist’s. Culture jamming is a radical revolt against mainstream corporate advertising and social conformity. Naomi Klein explains Culture Jamming as parodying corporate advertisements and changing their intended meaning. Culture Jammers believe that consumers should be able to participate within the media rather than passively absorb disseminated material.

Culture Jammer’s take advertisements a hot medium and transform them into a cool medium.Communication theorist Marshall McLuhan coined the terms hot and cold medium and describes them as:
"Basically, a hot medium excludes and a cool medium includes; hot media are low in participation, or completion, by the audience and cool media are high in participation ".

Absolut Vodka verus Absolut Impotence

The pictures above both feature bottles of Absolut Vodka. Absolut Vodka is an easily recognizable alcohol due to it's name, variety of flavours, 40-50% alcohol content and distinctively shaped bottle.

The picture featured on top is the parody of Absolut Vodka created by popular culture jammer’s Adbusters. The picture featured on the bottom is the advertisement created by Absolut Vodka's advertising agency TBWA worldwide.

The advertisement created by Absolut Vodka is to enforce the prestige, sexiness and elegance of the brand through the use of a seal, cursive writing, colour and the word imported in a large, black and bolded print.

The spoof by Culture Jammers features the Absolut Vodka crumpled and leaning over to the side. The cap is sitting in a pool of spilled vodka beside the bottle. The bottle's position is reminiscent of a sloppy drunk staggering person. Underneath the bottle there are two quotations one reading “Absolut Impotence". Absolut Impotence is a play on Absolut Vodka’s brand name. Merriam Webster dictionary defines the state of being impotent as “not potent: lacking in power, strength or vigour as well as obsolete: incapable of self restraint”. Impotence is not a desirable trait

Underneath of the 'impotent jab' theres is an infamous Shakespearean quote, from his play Macbeth "Drink provokes the desire but takes away the performance".
The imagery used by Adbusters reiterates that drinking excessive amounts of hard liquor seriously impairs one judgement. Adbusters advertisment suggests that there is nothing sexy about that girl we’ve all seen. You know THAT drunken girl, hunched over in a corner, about to pass out while spilling her alcohol all over the place.

Works Cited

The official ABSOLUT website. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. .

"The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan." Heim.ifi.uio.no. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. .

"Naomi Klein : No Logo : Ad Nauseum." Spike Magazine: Book Reviews, Interviews, Music, Art, Self Publishing, Travel and More. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. .

"Spoof Ads | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters." Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters | Journal of the mental environment. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. .