Kalle Lasn’s “Culture Jam”
America™ is the brand name that activist/founder of AdBusters Kalle Lasn uses to define the current state of American culture. What once was a nation consisting of people who set out to live the “American Dream”, is now a corporate-run business in every aspect. The American Dream has been changed into something that is now fed to American citizens through the mainstream media, a media which is run in every way by big business. That manufactured dream that is fed to us goes like this: look like one of those models on the billboards (or else no one will fall in love with you), buy a BMW, some Nike sneakers, and then buy more stuff so you can be “cool” and be just like everyone else.
Lasn explains how corporations control everything around us; what we see when we pick up a newspaper, who the president of the United States is, and most importantly, what the average American sees when he sits down to watch four hours of television every day.
While, at first, I found some of Lasn’s ideas a bit radical and far-fetched, I found them all very interesting, and realized the more I read how much truth there was to his ideas. What I found perhaps the most profound were his stories of his experiences trying to buy airtime on national television stations in order to air his own commercials. The commercial he attempted to air was an ad for an unofficial holiday he deemed “Buy Nothing Day”. This holiday was created as an attempt to get Americans to think about the level of consumerism in our nation and perhaps to get them to examine the real reasons why they buy so many unnecessary things. The best part about this holiday, was that it was to take place on the last Friday of November…the day after Thanksgiving when every year people line up in front of every major department store in the country in order to get in and buy everything they can get their hands on.
Lasn went to every major television station asking them if he could buy airtime, thinking that every American would have the right to use the television to exercise his/her right to free speech. Some of the responses from the PR people who dealt with Lasn’s request went as follows:
“There’s no law that says we have to air anything-we’ll decide what we want to air or not.” – ABC New York station manager Art Moore
“We don’t want to take any advertising that’s inimical to our legitimate business interests.” – NBC network commercial clearance manager Richard Gitter
And my personal favorite (and the one that justifies pretty much all of Lasn’s ideas):
“This commercial [“Buy Nothing Day”]…is in opposition to the current economic policy in the United States.” – CBS network’s Robert L. Lowary
After reading that it became quite clear how much of the media is controlled by big businesses in the United States; all of it. There is nothing above these corporations, because they have the money therefore they run the show that is now America™. They are making us who they want us to be, which is the most consumerist culture in the world.
As Lasn puts it, every American is on his/her knees in front of these corporations, and we all need to stand up. And that’s exactly what culture jamming is about. Standing up and not accepting what rich businesses are pushing onto us. Culture jamming is about a new kind of revolution, one that is waged on the media, and by reading just the first opening pages of his book it becomes apparent that Kalle Lasn believes that the culture jammers truly can change the world.
Posted By: Bobby Bernethy