|
Is Nothing Sacred? Only Marketing.
Christmas is the poster-holiday for the Freedom to Buy. And Chanukah was long ago morphed from a minor holiday to the Jewish ticket into seasonal consumerism. In a globalized market — or a marketized globe — everyone is invited to participate in the holiday cheer by cheering up the Dow. Many of our affiliates offer critiques of the commercialization of life, and some tell us things we could do about it.
People who grow up in forests accept trees and bugs as the natural content of the universe. People who grow up in malls likewise accept constant bombardment with instructions to purchase as equally natural. Communications media, which once upon a time were a mix of information and marketing, are increasingly given over to sales persuasion. And half of all sales are logged during the Christmas season, which begins promptly the day after the U.S. end-of-November Thanksgiving holiday and continues through early January. One of the challenges to master marketers is to extend this season throughout the year.
The unquestioned operation of the public airwaves as a shopping mall incenses those who perceive a larger purpose to social communication. Culture-jamming, the activist art of media appropriation, offers one way to fight back ... if the co-opting activists don't get co-opted themselves.
— Dave Lippman (dave@davelippman.com) and Aliza Dichter (liza@mediachannel.org), editors.
|
|
Kids: The Christmas Target
Children aren't born craving gifts in wintertime, but they are carefully trained to do so. Gary Ruskin and Jonathan Rowe report on marketers' efforts to "harness the nag potential of children." From Commercial Alert, December 7 2000
|
|
|
Santa: It's The Real Thing
Christmas is a pastiche: pagans gave us the winter holiday, German Christians brought in the tree and Santa Claus was a gift from ... Coke. Yes, the world-famous look of the white-bearded (and white-faced, even in South Africa) icon was developed by advertising geniuses to sell more Coca-Cola. From Alternet
|
|
|
|
Teach Kids To See Through Sales
Christmas is a "teachable moment," says this guide by and for media educators. The focus here is on class discussions — "opportunities for students to consider how this religious holiday has become a marketing frenzy." From Media Awareness Network, December 11 1999
|
|
|
|
Buy Nothing Day
How to fight back: Sponsored by the Canadian culture-jamming group Adbusters, this famous "shoppers' sickout" claims participants in over 30 countries. The campaign has the merit of the classic news hook: it takes on the religion of shopping on its most sacred day, the first day of Christmas sales, which is the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday. The site offers posters and other campaign tools, as well as ready-to-air "uncommercials." From Adbusters Media Foundation,
|
|
|
|
No Shop Day
The British version of the anti-buying campaign is supported by anti-consumerism group Enough. Their site offers activist tools and ideas, statistics and cool comics about the environmental costs of consumerism. (Enough)
|
|
|
|
Steal Something Day
Rejecting Adbusters' "feel-good, liberal, middle-class activist non-happening," a group of Canadian anarcho-situationists offer their own program to fight the advertising onslaught. From subvertise, December 26 2000
|
|
|
|
|
|
How To Enjoy The Consumer Season
Instead of listening to embittered journalists whining over the dead spirit of the season, here're some ways you can can truly celebrate ... including buying no-no gifts for kids, watching horrible videos on Xmas night and going on TV to demand a pagan "nativity" scene. From spark-online,
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jamming The Culture-Jammers
Warren Berger discusses the re-incorporation of culture jamming by the advertising industry: "billboard guerrillas and media pranksters ... now find it difficult to mock advertisers that are already mocking themselves." Stay ahead of their curve balls and remember: Buy Nothing! (Metropolis Magazine)
|
|
|
|
|
AS THE MEDIA WATCH THE WORLD, WE WATCH THE
MEDIA.
|
|
|
|