The following is from one of my favourite magazines, Adbusters.
"Last week we challenged you to create widespread cognitive dissonance around the world by putting our Everything Is Fine, Keep Shopping poster up in malls everywhere.
Cognitive dissonance is a high tension state between two opposing beliefs. It works like a pie in the face, first inducing confusion, then anger, and finally an intense desire to correct the imbalance — to recover the consonance that has been lost.
It’s an incredibly transformative force . . . a way to get people to reconsider what they hold dear and what they take for granted . . . the jolt that gets people to rethink their life choices.
Cognitive dissonance feels like low level grass roots fun, but it could be a way to kickstart a world revolution: we ambush people, first in malls, then in gasoline stations, then in supermarkets and all over the physical and mental environments . . . we inject radical ideas into people’s heads and set the tone for a new world order to come.
Culture Jammers have always messed with consumer culture, and that’s what we are doing with this latest jam. Already posters have gone up in malls and schools around the world. Let’s keep the dissonance going for another week. Print the poster, put it up somewhere and share it with your friends. Check out some of our other spoofs... – or create your own. And send us pictures of your jams and let us know how it feels."
for the wild,
Team Adbusters
Read more at: Adbusters
Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Adbusters is a not-for-profit magazine fighting back against the hostile takeover of our psychological, physical and cultural environments by commercial forces.
We really need this poster now that the coral in the Great Barrier Reef is dying, it is important that we continue to keep pumping out carbon and methane so the pH of the oceans can be altered and then wipe out all marine life, and then the algae can be used as a new fossil fuel.
ReplyDeleteOf course the above is irony. I felt deeply upset when I heard about the corral and all the other sentient beings and ecosystems that are being destroyed.
Vegan activists are using a similar method in the Uk by asking why people love cats and dogs while torturing and killing cows and pigs etc. I think it's hard to move forward while such inner contradictions are present. These contradictions are probaby why these complex systems fall apart and account for our slow pace of progress. I will share this excellent poster by email. Alex
I love the culture jamming that Adbusters does. They are looking at other ways of reaching the masses, other than being angry or preachy. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteCool idea Gregg. I am wondering though if some people just won't get it. Will be interesting to see how it pans out.
ReplyDeleteMadeleine.x
Hopefully when we encourage people to keep shopping they will ask themselves if there are any reasons why they maybe shouldn't shop. I hope that most people have even a vague feeling that everything is NOT alright. It will be interesting to see the reaction to this campaign.
DeleteI've heard of physical environment and culture environment, but have never heard of the two words 'psychological environment' used as a phrase. (see your last statement in the original post). How clever. I like that a lot. Uselful phrase. Praise to adbusters!
ReplyDeleteOur psychological environment has been hijacked by advertisers, with ill effects. I like that Adbusters is putting forward ways of wrestling our birthright back from big business.
Delete"Get out of my head!"