Anti logos

Harold’s “Anti Logos” discusses culture jamming and examines the opportunities and limitations of rhetorical strategies of ad parodies. Culture jamming is a movement that seeks to attack consumerism and disrupt corporations overconsumption through showing the “true logic” of ads that entice consumers to buy things. Two ways of culture jamming include parody and pranking. Parody poke fun at advertising and marketing campaigns while pranksters jams with the culture rather than against it. Despite the appeal of each method of culture jamming and its power to tell consumers that things are not as they should be, Harold critiques that their success is limited to challenge capitalism as they fail to offer alternatives beyond endless critique.  She proposes that the direct phrases and images used by Adbusters are just as fierce and direct as the original ad. Adbusters oversimplify the dynamic relationship consumers have with media images. Consumers don’t like to be told what to do or buy; we like to come to our own conclusion and make decisions for ourselves. One example that Harold mentions is Breast Cancer Fund’s attempt to raise awareness about breast cancer. The Breast Cancer Fund parodied Victoria’s Secret, Calvin Klein, and covers of Cosmopolitan magazine. They made them shocking and disturbing through featuring women who have lost a breast to bring public attention to the treatment of women, their breasts, and breast cancer. Though the parody sparked dialogues, it triggered the opposite of what they were trying to achieve; women were more terrified to get a diagnosis of breast cancer and were not going to the lab.

This image shows an example of a successful culture jamming method that diverged from the direct approach of Adbusters discussed in the reading. In 1993, the Barbie Liberation Organization sought to challenge traditional gender norms by switching the voice chips of a Barbie with a GI-Joe doll. Their tactic was effective because it was a less direct approach that allowed consumers to realize the problem with gender stereotypes on their own and make their own decisions.