Culture Jam

How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge—and Why We Must

Kalle Lasn

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780688178055
• eBook ISBN:
  9780062234636
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Étude des média

"This is the culture jammer's call to reverse the suicidal consumer binges while there is still time." —George Gerbner, founder of the Cultural Environment Movement
America is no longer a country but a multimillion-dollar brand, says Kalle Lasn and his fellow "culture jammers." The founder of  Adbusters magazine, Lasn aims to stop the branding of America by changing the way information flows; the way institutions wield power; the way television stations are run; and the way the food, fashion, automobile, sports, music, and culture industries set agendas. With a courageous and compelling voice, Lasn deconstructs the advertising culture and our fixation on icons and brand names. And he shows how to organize resistance against the power trust that manages the brands by "uncooling" consumer items, by "dermarketing" fashions and celebrities, and by breaking the "media trance" of our TV-addicted age.
A powerful manifesto by a leading media activist,  Culture Jam lays the foundations for the most significant social movement of the early twenty-first century—a movement that can change the world and the way we think and live.
"A brilliant and essential manual for our species." —David C. Korten, author of The Great Turning
"Kalle Lasn is challenging the mental stranglehold of advertising culture." —Polly Ghazi, Resurgence magazine
"The second American revolution is under way and Kalle Lasn is one of its Tom Paines." —Vicki Robin, New York Times–bestselling coauthor of Your Money or Your Life

Searchable Terms

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

AAAA (American Association of Advertising Agencies), 187

Abbey, Edward, 117

ABC, 32, 35, 38, 196

academics, 115–117

A. C. Nielsen company, 25

acts, beautiful vs. moral, 6–7

Adbusters, 31, 117, 119

Adbusters Media Foundation, 21

CBC sued by, 194–196

magazine and website of, 31

television campaigns of, 31–33, 56, 58, 62, 95, 126, 142, 170, 177, 193, 206, 207

website of, 132

A.d.i.d.a.s (All Day I Dream About Suicide), 115

advertisers, media power of, 33–35

advertising, 18–21, 22–23, 24, 119, 166, 167, 175

subvertising and, 131–132, 133–134

television rates for, 184

Advertising Age, 22, 176

“advertrocities,” 22–23

Alabama, 155, 160–161

Albania, 90–92, 94

alcoholism, 9, 10

Allen, Woody, 22, 52

Alternative Economics Committee, 208

ambient noise, 13–14

America™, 146, 215

cool and, 113–114

corporate control of, xii–xiii

global influence of, xiv

uncooling of, xvi–xvii

unofficial history of, 65–71

American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), 187

American Convention on Human Rights, 186

American Dream, end of, 59–63

American Medical Association (AMA), 188

America’s Funniest Home Videos, 37

Amusing Ourselves to Death (Postman), 24

“Anarchy in the U.K.,” 100

anger, xv, 12, 139

“anti-language,” 21

antitrust legislation and lawsuits, 67, 193

anxiety, 9

Apple, 102

Arcata, Calif., 161

Archer Daniels Midland, 34, 172

Asian “tiger” economies, 94

Asphalt Nation (Holtz), 82

Australia, 20, 21

authenticity, “kidnapping” of, 101

auto industry, 82–83

“Autosaurus” television campaign, 31, 126

Ayres, Robert, 88

Babette’s Feast, 79–80

“bads,” 89

Baffler, 114

bank charters, 67

banks, disputes with, 148

Banks, Ferdinand, 90

Barings Bank, 93

Barnes & Noble, 34

“batwing disorder,” 75

Baudrillard, Jean, 40

Beatles, 101

Beattie, Ann, 44–45

Beatty, Jennifer, 70

“beautiful acts,” 6–7

Before Sunrise, 102

Bellow, Saul, 10–11

Benetton, 22–23, 26

Bentley, David, 20

Berisha, Sali, 92

Bertelsmann, 186

Bestfoods, 20

Beverly Hills Bar Association, 197

bicycles, bike lanes, 179, 180

Big Enemies, 105

Bill of Rights, 68

bioeconomics, 86–90, 202–203

Bird by Bird (Lamott), 4–5

Black, Conrad, 25

Black Friday, 94

Black Monday, 93, 94

“black shakes,” 24

Blanton, B...

Table of contents

• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Introduction: Culture Jamming
• Autumn
• Winter
• Spring
• Summer
• Epilogue: The Millennial Moment of Truth
• Notes
• Graphic Credits
• Searchable Terms
• The Culture Jammers Network
• About the Author
• Copyright
• About the Publisher