Cmns 428 – Assignment #1

Kristen MacDonald

301040166

For: Stuart Poyntz

February 18 2008

CMNS 428

Simon Fraser University

Media Design Assignment 1

I have chosen to develop a series of “culture jams” focusing on adolescents as my target audience. Adolescence is a key stage of personal development in which the individual is actively seeking to create their sense of identity. I have designed a series of images, which provoke the viewer to reflect on identity development, which incorporates brand association. Ultimately, this series seeks to achieve a heightened level of self-awareness in the viewer regarding the means by which they identify themselves as a human being. Hopefully the viewer will come to recognize the absurdity in the notion of identity based on consumer choices.

As stated by Kapur (1999), Pre-teens have been recognized by marketers as an important market segment understanding that consumers who are “hooked” on a brand early on will remain loyal to this brand throughout their life (p 125). This marketing tactic is entirely pedagogical in that the corporate agendas are intentionally directed at cultivating consumers. This is problematic in that many young people today are defining themselves based on their purchasing preferences rather than personal and interpersonal experiences.

Additionally, attractions to specific brands for teenagers may come from a yearning to be apart of a social group or community. Thomas O’Guinn claims that brand appreciation creates a “consciousness of kind”. This shared affection for a brand creates a common bond between people (2005, p 257). For young teens, who are often desperately seeking peer acceptance the preference for certain brands is the “tie that binds”, unfortunately this commonality is inorganic and ultimately insincere.

Successful culture jamming uses pre-existing meaning in common signifiers found within mass media (often advertisements) and creates new meaning which contradict the intended meaning of the original signifiers. Mark Derry describes Culture Jams as “any form of jamming which tales told for mass consumption are perversely re-worked.” The Culture Jams which I have produced would fall into Derry’s category of Culture Jams titled “Sniping and Subvertising” (Derry, 6) as these pieces are “anti-ads” using logos of popular brands among teen and pre-teens. Logos used in these culture jams are the signs of youth culture being utilized to provoke dissonance regarding the construction of identity, which incorporates these very signs. This act is what Marshall McLuhan prophesied as “controlling the media fallout” (Derry, 9).

In a cultural environment super-saturated with commercial messages one becomes anaesthetized by constant exposure to such visual communications. Though many of us tend to believe we do not pay attention to these individual messages, the overarching ideology presides; consume. Culture Jams demand attention due to their divergence from the norm with a message that contradicts the commercial marketplace of ideas.

My series of Culture Jams incorporate familiarity with peculiarity. My intension is to demand the viewer’s attention by utilizing the brands, which they both recognise and identify with and create slight confusion with the positioning of these logos. This use of initial uncertainty may be identified as what Marshal McLuhan refers to as “Cool Media” because it requires high participation from the audience. I have refrained from using a tagline in my images with the intent to create a space for contemplation. Originally I considered using the tagline “Identify Yourself”, but I found this to be accusing. By allowing the viewer space to generate meaning from this image without obvious prompting, the ultimate meaning could take a number of forms; the viewer may recognize his or her self as similar to one of the persons in the image; the viewer may recognize the tendency of this type of identity formation in themselves; alternatively the viewer may generate an unexpected meaning for themselves.

Culture Jamming is based on the idea that the message is contradictory to the dominant ideologies within mainstream mass-media. The message is different than what the viewer is accustomed to, therefore audiences are drawn to the image or other form of media. However, problems arise when the viewer is exposed to Culture Jams with more frequency. As Health and Potter point out in their book Rebel Sell, once something loses its “distinction” it becomes less appealing (128). It is the contradictory message, which draws ones attention to the Culture Jam, so once the medium loses its sense of difference, it loses its appeal in the marketplace of ideas.

Furthermore, Heath and Potter note that this sense of “rebellion” or “counterculture” propels modern competitive consumer society (2004, 129). Marketers have recognized the attraction to counterculture for decades and often use the very tactics of Culture Jams in their campaigns to sell products (2004, 130). Recognizing this phenomenon of the distinctive becoming the norm, it becomes apparent that the life of effective Culture Jams is likely to be short-lived or force Culture Jams to take on new forms.

While recognizing the validity of Health and Potter’s position on the rational of contemporary competitive consumer culture and the changing strategies of mass-media in order to accommodate it, the possibility of successful Culture Jams remains. As mass-marketers adapt and innovate according to societal changes so must the designers behind the media forms, which oppose them. Culture is not stagnant, it is dynamic and always shifting therefore Culture Jamming must respond respectively.

Works Cited

Derry, M. (1993). Culture Jamming: Hacking, slashing and snipping in the empire of signs.

Heath, J. and Potter, A. (2004). The Rebel Sell. HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. Toronto.

O’Guinn, TC, et al. ‘Communal Consumption and the Brand.’ Ratneshwar, S, et al. Inside Consumption. US: Routledge, 2005. (p 252 to 272).