As you walk through a city, how often do you stop to think about the signs, symbols and advertisements that bombard your vision from every direction? There seems little doubt that we live in a society increasingly dominated by visual information. However, refection on life is a prerequisite for living, and the cultural, political and commercial symbols of our times are well worth rethinking on a regular basis.
Commercial: Probably the most well known form of culture jamming is subvertising. Subvertisements are creative anti-ads targeted at conspicuous consumption considered endemic of capitalistic societies. These images variously target consumers themselves or large corporations, often with a specific message to get people thinking about what and/or why they buy.
Political: Less common but equally powerful are political forms of culture jamming. The above examples play on everyday symbols people normally wouldn’t think twice about. By subtly changing their meaning, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and takes on significance beyond what is expected. Respectively, the above signs deal with complex issues of political asylum in Australia and the contentious Iraq War.
Social: Of course, some culture jams are playful in nature and target society in general, being satirically oriented at anything from a holiday to a particular political leader or recognizable symbol. They may cause one to rethink reality, or simply laugh at something twisted to be slightly more-than-ordinary. The best subversive street art videos and images, of course, cause us to do both.
36 Comments
October 8th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Great signs hehehehe
October 8th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Some good. Some not so funny, but all of interest.
October 8th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Reminds me of a little graffiti war they had on stop signs around here — under the word “STOP,” somebody wrote “BUSH” on every sign in town. A few days later, someone else wrote “CAN’T” above all that. It was pretty amusing, which says a lot about the towns I’ve lived in.
October 9th, 2007 at 2:51 am
Funny, I am a great fan of the AdBusting idea ever since I was introduced to Naomi Klein’s (http://www.naomiklein.org) No Logo, around 2002. Yet I was not familiar with some of the other forms of culture jamming mentioned here such as the Stop War “installation” which really looks like art to me. political art of course.
Fantastic as usual.
October 9th, 2007 at 8:11 am
I was just telling my husband how I think telephone poles mar the landscape. Some signs are beautiful, as you show here, but too much can boggle the mind.
JJ :D
October 9th, 2007 at 8:41 am
Oh these are great pics!!!!
October 9th, 2007 at 9:31 am
I really like the “Stop War” one… defaming signs - in my opinion - is stupid and hazardous.
October 9th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
I luv the ‘Stop’ and ‘Stop War’ sign…clever!
Also, the “Santa gives more to rich kids than poor ones”…is that true?
October 9th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Great finds!
October 12th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Ahaha, great post. I especially enjoyed the Stop War and the Grilled e.colita. Makes me sick just thinking about taco bell.
October 13th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Defaming signs, Milo? They ruined the signs reputation?
Oh, WAIT… you meant to say DEFACE.
October 16th, 2007 at 6:06 am
i really like the refugee post
October 24th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
exactly!
http://squidoo.com/japanese123456
October 28th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
My personal favourite was refugee island… being from Australia…
November 5th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Stop War sign is really spiffy. Thumbs up
January 20th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
this is awesome and funny
January 20th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
nlah blah blah fart fart
January 20th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
i am dead
January 20th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
dude fart
February 14th, 2008 at 9:43 am
humm….. all i want to say is that the ‘’stop war” sign was a very clever idea i agree with that and i feel that some people over exagerate on things and that some people just need to grow up i know that thing get a little hard at times but that doesnt mean that we always have to blame other people we need to learn to be able to take responcibility
February 21st, 2008 at 11:54 am
pork chop sandwiches!
March 19th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
nice work man 10x
March 19th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
sweet site thx
March 19th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
hi great site 10x
April 27th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Great signs, especially the “Ninja Entry”
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