August 7, 2002

5:07 PM

Adbusters TV launched.Everyone's favourite culture jammers and uncommercialists are looking for your video contributions.

"The next time you and your friends organize a street party, liberate a billboard, shoot an indy documentary, or throw a pie into the ugly face of authority, we want people worldwide to catch it the next day

There is an inaugural contest to get the content flowing. They are looking for video, audio, and animation in three categories: Direct Action (jams, spoofs, pranks, protests); Epiphanies (personal works); and Mini-Documentaries.
posted by boost ventilator (10 comments total)

Finally! An outlet for the humorless "we fear advertising" types with a spare copy of After Effects.
posted by owillis at 6:56 PM on August 7, 2002

The next time you and your friends organize a street party, liberate a billboard, shoot an indy documentary, or throw a pie into the ugly face of authority, we want people worldwide to catch it the next day

Let's run that through the patented "Rebel Without A Clue" translation system:

The next time you and your friends organize a street party [disturb the peace], liberate a billboard [deface property], shoot an indy documentary [sorry, no dictionary results found for 'indy documentary'], or throw a pie into the ugly face of authority [assault someone], we want people worldwide to catch it [imitate and propagate this empty meme] the next day.

I fear the authority of these humorless puritans more than I fear even Ronald McDonald. And believe me, I fear Ronald McDonald.
posted by evanizer at 7:20 PM on August 7, 2002

Oh, Adbusters. I've heard of them. They wrote an article called
Watch or Go to Jail. It's about two kids from Perrysburg, Ohio whose mother was religiously opposed to watching television. The kids walked out of the classroom when a TV was turned on, and were given a one day suspension in Juvie Hall for truancy. Adbusters sided with the kids and their mother, unaware (or not caring) that they were siding against their father who insisted that they be in class with the other kids and had a court order giving him the authority to make the decision.

Adbusters tried to spin this as a battle of "Evil Media versus poor little kids." In reality, it is a battle of "mother versus father." The kids were forced to watch TV not becuase of school policy, but because of their father. In my opinion, this is primarily a custody battle, and they shouldn't have gotten involved in it.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 7:30 PM on August 7, 2002

Nice to see that their marketing department made sure that the branding strategy included the contest, glossy magazine, merchandising opportunities for additional revenue streams, interactive online community, synergistic tie-ins with strategic partners, and catchy slogans with lots of happy exclamation points!!!!

It's a good thing we have uncommercialists to stop us from being treated like consumers!!!!
posted by fuzz at 7:42 PM on August 7, 2002

Apparently the irony is completely lost on them fuzz, as they keep doing what they're doing.

Or maybe they know its ironic, and cynically do it for the attention. I know I would.
posted by insomnyuk at 8:43 PM on August 7, 2002

The sincerely cynical thing to do is build a multibillion dollar business out of culture jamming. I'm not sure if we should take the piss out of them for being vacuously commercialized rebels or lousy entrepreneurs.
posted by fuzz at 9:15 PM on August 7, 2002

See, now they've got me using phrases like "sincerely cynical".
posted by fuzz at 9:16 PM on August 7, 2002

The sincerely cynical thing to do is build a multibillion dollar business out of culture jamming.

Having been in their offices, I can safely say they're not a multibillion dollar business. How they've managed to publish a glossy full color magazine for many years without advertising, I have no idea.

All that being said, their message is getting a little tired.
posted by monkeymike at 9:10 AM on August 8, 2002

I just hope this is the excuse someone needs to finally litigate those bozos out of existence. Why don't they make fun of Scientology or something, try fighting with somebody else who actually plays dirty.
posted by Leonard at 9:15 AM on August 8, 2002

I once wrote a complaint letter to Adbusters, and they published it, but they cut out the part containing the actual complaint.

'Nuff said.
posted by Down10 at 2:23 AM on August 10, 2002