Culture Jamming

Culture jamming is when artists speaking out against popular culture in a way that is not thought of as acceptable by the government. These people create humor out of a more serious situation that is in most cases a popular media, and they can also be the subjects of culture jamming themselves. It is frequently a series of plays on words, twisted images and hidden messages that at first may be hard to notice because they are like the original ad itself but after recognized, show a strong message. It is social activism and anti-consumerism that usually conveys a message that the jammer feels strongly about.

This is a picture of what used to be an iPod ad. Instead of a person dancing with their iPod it is a soldier throwing a grenade and instead of the apple logo it is a white grenade. This culture jam does two things. First it is a very good reflection of what is going on in or world today, there is a war happening that is not ending any time soon and it talk about on the bottom all the soldiers and Iraqis that have died. It secondly pokes fun at apple and how the people dancing can so easily be turned into a soldier in the act of a hate crime. I think culture jammers are very interesting and creative in that they can take a popular ad and turn in into something that represents an issue that is much more important than the ad itself. They should keep up the good work because it’s interesting and entertaining and gets important messages out there.