Consuming Passions

Culture jamming, or sniggling, is the act of using existing mass media to comment on those very media themselves, using the original medium's communication method [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_jamming] The whole concept of the term "culture jamming" came about from the notion of ‘radio jamming’ the fact that radio’s frequency can just as easily be easily pirated and then used for independent communication, or in any given case it can be used to just disrupt the dominant frequencies. Culture jamming is seen as an act of political activism and can also be said that it is based on the whole notion that advertising is now seen as nothing more than propaganda for perhaps the more ‘established’ advocates. Culture jamming can be construed as an intriguing structure of political communication, a political communications that had emerged due to the response to commercial isolation of public life by the audience. Followers of culture jamming argue that culture, politics, and social values have been twisted and made to be unrecognisable by the commercial sectors, from their corporate logos on sports facilities, to what they show on television, it is all designed solely to deliver targeted audiences.

The art of culture jamming is based on altering famous brand slogans and thus creating a political statement that demonstrates their point. The most high profile case of a parody would be from the nike adverts, their slogan “Just do it” is a phrase that is commenly known throughout the world, this slogan was then changed to "Just do it... or else!" which commented on the fact that Nike had allegedly oppend up sweatshops in developing countries. Another well known parody of a Nike advert would be the one were the slogan is changed to ‘Just blow it’, its depicting a homeless man wearing Nike trainers, basically saying that no matter how poor you are, you should always be seen in the most trendiest pair of trainers. There is also a cosmopolitan cover with a scantily clad celebrity on the front with the subheading of ‘get ahead by dressing sleazy, earning less then men: and how to just accept it’ this publication parodies the fact that this is how the commercial sector perceive what women like to read.

Culture jamming cannot systematically be categorised, as it is focuses upon numerous areas of the media, such as print, television and the World Wide Web. Their parodies of high profile adverts are extremely distinguished amongst the receivers of media messages. In the present climate culture jamming is constructed using elements of political activism and it could also be argued that it is a fusion of modern day art. The commercial sector may have seen culture jamming as a form of vandalism, with guerrilla artists such as Rodriguez de Gerada, however he had pointed out that he preferred the term ‘citizen artists’ as apposed to ‘guerrilla’ artist. The commercial sector has accused Rodriguez of Defacing their billboards and that what they were doing was in fact vandalism, however Rodriguez and many other artist can argue back that they were simply demonstrating that by placing these billboards in ‘ghetto’ areas were in fact inappropriate, simply because the given audience are not able to afford such luxuries, and so by advertising in these places would give the illusion that these said products would change their lifestyle, and in order for these people to get that lifestyle they had resorted to stealing and other petty crime. Naomi Klein also mentioned “feminism 101”, a new brand of female culture jammers. She wrote that their most obvious problem was with the beauty industry and how models in such adverts were shown to be stick thin. She mentions a particular