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Select Any Contemporary Social Movement and Discuss Its Central Issues and Forms of Organisation, and Outline Its Strategy and Tactics

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Select Any Contemporary Social Movement and Discuss Its Central Issues and Forms of Organisation, and Outline Its Strategy and Tactics Select any contemporary social movement and discuss its central issues and forms of organisation, and outline its strategy and tactics The following essay will concentrate on the contemporary anti-consumerist social movement with particular focus on the role of Adbusters, a Vancouver based anti-consumerist and anti-corporate organisation. The essay will discuss the central issues and forms of organisation associated with Adbusters and outline their tactics and strategy. A social movement can be defined in a variety of ways depending on the adopted perspective, although most definitions refer to “collective mobilisations with socio-economic, political and/or cultural dimensions, mobilizing around issues of identity, as well as around more specific rights” Mayo (2005:54). Blumer (1969:99) cited in Mayo (2005), similarly conceptualizes social movements as “collective enterprises” whose aim is to create a new way of life. Della Porta & Diani (1999) define social movements as “fluid phenomena” with blurred boundaries, identifying four social movement ‘themes’ which include “informal, interaction networks based upon shared beliefs and solidarity” p17. Adbusters can be included in this theme as its members consist of a communicative network of culture jammers and other acolytes with a shared ethos and common adversary- mass consumption and corporate power. Collectively these networks focus on struggles and conflicts surrounding contemporary culture, often incorporating the use of protest (ibid). Theories of New Social Movements (NSMs) emerged in the 1970s and 1980s and were mostly developed in reaction to the 1968 student riots in France and other related protests in Europe. The strengths to come out of the new research include a refocusing on the deep underlying and wide-ranging socio- Jennifer McIntyre 386984 economic and political questions associated with social movements. The difference between NSMs and older social movements was also an often explored theme (Crossley, 2003). According to Habermas (1987), NSMs are primarily associated with conflicts relating to “cultural reproduction, social integration and socialisation” as opposed to conflicts of the past which centred on issues of capital and labour (Crossley, 2003). In contrast to this, Edwards (2004) argues that as opposed to NSMs abandoning the capital-labour conflicts, they actually tend to “encompass them”. This can be seen in the contemporary anti-corporate movements such as Occupy Wall Street where the main goal of the movement is to challenge capitalist and corporate power. Adbusters can be defined as a NSM in line with Habermas’ (1987) conception of NSMs. Habermas outlines ‘cultural impoverishment’ relating to the ‘colonization of the lifeworld’ as a main cause for the rise of NSMs. Using the example of advertising clutter, Rumbo (2002) utilises Habermas’ theory to highlight the colonization of the lifespace through “airwaves, physical landscapes and lived experience” p128. Adbusters aims to address similar concerns to those outlined by Habermas, challenging ‘colonization of the lifeworld’ with a variety of tactics. Produced by Media Foundation and based in Vancouver, Adbusters describes itself as “a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age” www.adbusters.org. The social movement was founded in the early 1990s by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz, a pair of successful documentary makers, in reaction to a pro-forestry advertising campaign called “Forests Forever”. The campaign was aired on CBC and 1 Jennifer McIntyre 386984 displayed scenes of what Adbusters labels “greenwashing” White, 2011. The idea was born of the ‘uncommercial’, a counter commercial aimed at neutralising the original message. Lasn and Schmalz produced and presented their uncommercial to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) who refused to air it through fear of upsetting the forestry company and their other advertisers. However, the campaign inadvertently attracted the attention of the media and CBC later removed the original forestry campaign due to increasing press attention and related controversy. Disillusioned by the increasingly corporate world, Lasn began to fight back, and from this initial campaign grew Adbusters. The Adbusters website was launched and an ad free magazine was created. In 1993 the first issue of Adbusters was circulated; it proclaimed to change the landscape of consumer ideology. “We intend to culture jam the destructive, consumer paradigms that rule our lives in order to save the forests, the air we breathe and the clarity of our own minds” www.adbusters.org In 2000, Adbusters magazine sold approximately 100,000 copies worldwide (Campbell, 2000). Kalle Lasn is chief editor of Adbusters magazine and website and is lead representative of the movement with a small number of paid staff behind him. Lasn and his colleagues, magazine subscribers, culture jammers and other followers constitute the social movement. Online communities and networks who share the culture jammer’s beliefs contribute in their own ways, for example, by adopting the messages projected by Adbusters and living more simplistically as a result. Adbusters makes great use of the internet and social networking and is a “multi-dimensional communications network”. Carducci (2006:133). Pickeral et al (2002) described the scene at the offices of Adbusters as “vibrating with so much energy” as they entered to conduct an interview 2 Jennifer McIntyre 386984 with Kalle Lasn in 2002. Operations witnessed included the processing of subscriptions and mailings of Adbusters magazine and a variety of people in meetings and working on computers producing new material. According to Touraine (1981) cited in (Kozinets and Handelman, 2004), social movement activists are people who care about the well-being of society, people who promote social change which is for the good of others. Adbusters calls for a pollution free media- one free from corporate interests. Chief Editor Lasn states “it is commercially infested at every corner and ambushes us with sexy and violent images” The Observer (2005). According to Lasn, people are unable to escape the bombardment of marketing messages which is said to be close to 3000 per day in North America (Littlewood, 1999). Too many marketing message designed to sell “can alert cognitive defences and foster resentment” p128. Consumers become sceptical about the motivations behind branding and advertising and defences such as ‘ad avoidance’ come into play (Rumbo, 2002). Janus (1986) cited in Sklair (2002) argues that transnational advertising agencies (TNAAs) promote certain goods, they are “engineering social, political and cultural change” which falls in line with the levelling out of a global culture. TNAAs accomplish societal changes by producing want beyond biological need. Consumers are targeted through mass media advertising which acts above the role of government and is served directly to the public. It is Adbusters’ aim to highlight and challenge this kind of control. Adbusters website and magazine contains no advertising, the movement concentrates on “articles, artwork and subvertising” Carducci (2006:119). The website is constantly updated and contains videos spoofs and parodies of well known global brands as well as more educational videos and short commentaries on 3 Jennifer McIntyre 386984 things such as corporate personhood and various protests around the world. The tactics adopted by Adbusters seek to unite localized ‘grassroots action’ with wider social and environmental concerns. They attempt to challenge and momentarily reposition the hold of consumerism, reclaiming discursive space. The aim is to “cultivate a critical mindset that diversifies discursive space and seeks to reclaim public and psychic space” Rumbo (2002:141). One of the main ways Adbusters challenges consumerism is through culture jamming. Culture jamming originates from the 1969 French Situationist movement in Paris which sparked a series of negative feelings relating to consumer capitalism (Lasn, 2010). Adbusters website and magazine is viewed by many as the centre of the culture jamming network (Atkinson, 2003). The act of culture jamming includes the alteration of billboard and other advertisements and the creation of spoof ads and parodies which aim to project a new meaning and carry with them “a political message or social commentary on the product, brand or corporation doing the advertising” Pickeral et al (2002). Culture jamming is part of the backlash against the influence of corporations and advertising on society and is sometimes referred to as ‘meme’ warfare. A ‘meme’ is a unit of information, for example a catchphrase or image associated with a particular brand. Culture jamming aims to challenge the dominant ideology and does so by “producing and transmitting resistance memes” Lasn (1999:124). An example of this is when culture jammer Josh Peretti began an email exchange with Nike which went viral across the internet. Peretti had requested the word “Sweatshop” to appear on Nike’s custom shoes. The email exchange caught the attention of the media which raised awareness of the issues behind our consumption choices whilst manipulating the original ‘meme’ (Pickeral et al, 2002). 4 Jennifer McIntyre 386984 The majority of culture jamming focuses on issues relating to product branding and “the manipulation of desires through advertising” Holt (2002:71) and is used to highlight
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