There are so many things we grow to love in life. We go around telling everyone that we "sleep, eat and breathe it". One thing we forget to mention in our list of things we love is brand names. Whether or not we deny this passion for brands, we "blindly slave"(Rasool, 2009) to big corporations and "brands that control our lives from their steely grey watchtowers with pet vultures that circle overhead and report back on our behaviour"(Rasool, 2009). These companies know exactly what we want and prefer, so they manufacture and produce for our specific needs. We unknowingly tend to love this special treatment.
However, coming back to consumerism; as some individuals who are aware that the commercial culture is dominating aren’t necessarily too keen about this happening. And what better way to protest against the multinational corporations and boycotting their product by culture jamming. As award winning student director Chad Gillespie says, it is "an organized, social activist effort that aims to counter the bombardment of consumption oriented messages in the mass media"(Gillespie) in his work called What Is This Jam In My Culture.
The number one food consumer brand in the world today is McDonalds. This food brand knows exactly what the public wants; a family oriented restaurant that provides children with a happy and fun-filled environment. It promotes itself with McDonald the clown which shows everyone that this is the perfect place for togetherness. What McDonald doesn't say is that their Big Mac’s contain a total of 540 calories and fat component of 29 g or that that their Cheeseburger Happy Meal contains a total of 550 calories , 25g of fat and 63 g of carbs. This culture jamming is an amazing display of McDonald our people friendly clown. There is a masking tape that is literally shutting him up of his sweet talking words to show a GREASE sign. Geez, that’s something you don't see McDonald promoting everyday.
Tiger Woods
Tigers Woods' swoosh smile is famous. The perfect culture jamming ad for celebrity endorsement. It shows how a celebrity basically becomes the product and the brand while selling a brand. In this ad, they literally pasted the brand on Tiger Woods face to emphasize his well known smile.
Works Cited
Gillespie, S. Chad. "What Is This Jam In My Culture. Studies in Global Media. 2007. 22nd November 2009.
"McDonalds". Livestrong. 2008. 22nd November 2009.
Rasool, Farzana. "Culture Jamming". Cybertreehugs. 4th November 2009.
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