Commercial rowdies

„I'm loving it“, „Just Do it“ – We’re confronted with a lot of commercial messages on a daily base – if we want them or not.

 

On our way to work, we see naked women on huge

billboards who want to make us buy a special perfume; at the tracks of our train, happy families in front of a paradise background smile down at us from posters; while we wait for our fries, colourful, hectic spots try to sell us this and that from screens at the walls.

 

Unmask the commercial messages

The constant stream of ads and commercials is widely tolerated by people, with the urban dweller of the 21st century having developed an especially thick shield to apparently thwart every single of those shrill messages. Still, this ever-present commercial flood is an aggressive act, an interference without any prior request for permission which you can’t prevent – at least, that is the argumentation of consumption critics and adbusters.

The latter group is a current phenomenon at the crossroads between activism and arts: they are street art artists focusing on unwanted commercial messages in cityscapes. At night, they roam the streets and change, alienate and redesign commercial posters and boards in order to unmask their message, to turn it around or to mock it. Their weapons: spray cans, glue, scissors.

 

Fight against cunsumer frenzy

In Berlin, the Streetartist Prost, (some may know him by his trademark tag, the smilie) belongs to the well-known representatives of this movement. The main part of his work is focused on criticism of consumption via adbusting. He reacts on his environment by butchering gentrification posters of real estate companies, manipulating logos, or leaving his marks on walls by creating funny little art works against yuppies or capitalism.

In London, Eyesaw has committed himself to the fight, too, and preferably works on illuminated commercial spaces at bus stops which he provides with new anti-consumerism messages. So, you get meditating Coca-Cola monks, a Christmas Jesus wearing a Dollar t-shirt, a capitalist dangling on a rope, and a Coke Zero commercial poster with the slogan „Buying is Believing“.

 

Irony against deficits

These activists are rooted in the street art and graffiti scene. One of the most popular cutting-edge representatives of this art who cleverly used graffiti in a political way, is British artist Banksy who has already tagged his subversive messages around the whole world, and whose ingenious, subtle film „Exit Through The Gift Shop“ is a thorough criticism of the arts market in general. Banksy’s works are also a subtle attack on middle-class, bigot conceptions and focus on – in an often very ironic way – social and political deficits.

Apart from street culture, adbusting also has an „ideological“ background, influenced by its main spearheads Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz. Since 1989, the Canadians follow and mark the scene with their Adbusters Magazine which regularly contains relevant and interesting topics regarding culture jamming and adbusting. Next to environmentalist and capitalist-critical issues, subvertisement has always played a crucial role in the magazine, too.

 

Criticism of boundless consumerism

The manipulation of commercial logos and messages in order to unmask and satirise them is often used by NGOs and consumer-critical groups for their campaigns to expose the bad practices of big companies and to accuse them. Now, these ideas find their way into the cityscapes by being spread on billboards and posters. The general consensus of many new movements, for example the LOHAs and the new minimalists, is the increasing criticism of boundless consumerism as one of the main reasons for many problems on the world today.

 
A thoughtful reflection of the topic is necessary – in our society, it is preferably offered with a dash of humour. In a society only based on consumption, seemingly bare of any other meaning it may once have had, this kind of counterforce is all the more important. Let’s just hope the movement picks up speed, causing more and more people to think twice.

 

photos: Eyesaw; www.eye-saw.net