Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Blog

Conscience busters.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 4 comments link this post

I purchased a copy of Adbusters magazine to read while locked in the medical study center this past weekend. I frequently read publications usually labeled as alternative or independent.¹

Adbusters as an organization claims to be a "culture jammer", deriding consumerist, wasteful, traditional culture. On their web site, they say they are "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. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century."² The organization publishes a self-titled magazine, criticizing standard media methods using standard media methods to do so.

Oh, sure, there are swear words in the articles, and the graphics and layout are edgier³. This, however, does not change the fact that it is a high-color, high-concept magazine with...ads.

Not as many ads as a regular magazine. That's true. Actually, only two sets of ads. Ads for BlackSpot shoes, and ads for Buy Nothing Day.⁴

BlackSpot seems to be an acceptable ad in a magazine that seems to want to kill that sort of thing because:

It practices "environmentally friendly" practices.
It's part of the Adbusters company/network/movement/brand/whatever.

Buy Nothing Day is acceptable to advertise for because:

It encourages people to cull consumerist habits.
It's part of the Adbusters company/network/movement/brand/whatever.

An ad is an ad, whether the company is environmentally acceptable or not, whether it is a huge corporation or not, whether it is a cutting-edge brand or not. It serves one purpose, no matter the intention of the product, and that purpose is: to sell stuff, and to promote a brand which supposedly represents a lifestyle.

Don't get me wrong.

Many of the articles were interesting and even though I get tired of publications trying to be so edgy in their writing and graphic design that it is, at times, annoying to read, I appreciate the wide breadth of subject matter. My problem is, however, that like many of these alternative, edgy, independent -- in your face, traditional media! -- publications, Adbusters has such a narrow and pure focus that in order exist, grow, and have influence...they have to be hypocrites.

I don't buy the excuse that using traditional media and consumerist tendencies to curb those very things is a winning solution. Why encourage people to throw off unnecessary consumerism and allegiance to brands only to ask them to buy shoes and then buy nothing, all part of the Adbusters brand?

While reading this edition of the magazine (and from experiences reading earlier editions), I found anger at how many products were available and how useless it was and how no one needs to have all these products that companies are telling use we need. I then read about anger at how large corporations were buying out smaller ones and creating a monopoly.

Somehow, when I think these two points of view through all the way to the end, they seem at odds with each other. Kind of like printing a large high-quality heavy-papered magazine and encouraging environmentalism within its pages are at odds with each other. (Soybean ink and X% of post consumer waste ain't gonna cut it.)

I appreciate their effort, and I can't even disagree with all of the message. The irritation is that these kinds of magazines and newspapers give my conscience indigestion. They take themselves so seriously they're hilarious. They always seem, by the time I'm finished reading, to be trying to organize anarchy.

Impossible.

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¹When traveling, I try to grab any such publications from coffee shops or restaurants just to get a feel for how independent they all are. Oddly, the independent paper from Michigan is just like the one from Fargo which is like the one from Seattle. They all complain about the same thing. How independent is that?

²The usual suspects. Never an accountant or beautician or barista in such a list, though you can be sure the people that comprise this list make full use of those kinds of services. I could comment more on this brief summation and what Adbusters hopes to do (particularly on the inclusion of "pranksters, educators and entrepreneurs"), but that will have to wait for another blog post.

³The issue I read had a full page photo of a dead deer on a highway with gore coming out of its mouth. Underneath it was a mindless quote by Paris Hilton. I'm not sure of the why on either aspect.

⁴I rather appreciate the concept of Buy Nothing Day, though I appreciate it more in the form of the Buy Nothing Christmas. Either day, though it makes a perpetually broke person like myself feel confident, does nothing to increase sales here at Lone Prairie. Without money, I can't purchase either the Adbusters magazine nor the BlackSpot shoes.

Labels: culture, media

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4 Comments:

Nice footnotes. I don't believe, though,that it approaches a personal record for you.

By Mark, at 26/9/07 11:34

Amen, amen, amen. Thanks for pinpointing what is so difficult for me to articulate. Yes! In my mind, this is closely related to people who only listen to "indie" music. It's like a badge of honor for them. But then what happens when a small rock bands goes big-time? "Sell-outs." Um...because they're successful? Wouldn't YOU want to be successful? GRRR.

By Lois E. Lane, at 27/9/07 10:38