culture jam

Culture jamming, is the act of using existing media such as billboards, bus-ads, posters, and other ads to comment on those very media themselves or on society in general, using the original medium's communication method. It is based on the idea that advertising is little more than propaganda for established interests, and that there is little escape from this propaganda in industrialized nations. Culture jamming differs from artistic appropriation (which is done for art's sake), and from vandalism where destruction or defacement is the primary goal.

The word, "culture jamming" comes from the idea of radio jamming: that public frequencies can be pirated and subverted for independent communication, or to disrupt dominant frequencies. The Situationist International first made the comparison to radio jamming in 1968, when it proposed the use of guerrilla communication within mass media to sow confusion within the dominant culture. (Kalle Lasn, the founder of AdBusters magazine, wrote a book entitled Culture Jam, but the term predates his title.)

Culture jamming is a form of activism and a resistance movement to the hegemony of popular culture, based on the ideas of "guerrilla communication" and the "detournement" of popular icons and ideas. It has roots in the German concept of spass guerilla, and the Situationist International. Forms of culture jamming include adbusting, performance art, graffiti art and hacktivism (notably cybersquatting

lets go out and culture jam that fucking Halliburton billboard

culture jam by Logan Marshall November 29, 2004

culture jamming 

Culture Jamming is the act of subverting mass media or communication to produce negative commentary on it’s self.
It is a form of social activism. It’s usually as a social movement against commercialism.
There are many types of culture jamming some are:
Guerrilla radio
Political vandalism
Hacktivism
Passive jamming

The corporate network was flooded by the culture jamming activists.
Did you hear them culture jamming the radio waves?

culture jamming by Dr Inkerman September 16, 2008

culture-jamming 

The appropriation of a cultural element from one position to support a counter-position

The alt-right used culture-jamming to mimic civil rights movements during the 2016 election

culture-jamming by sandraxine September 26, 2017

culture jamming 

An act of vandalism carried out by uneducated but highly indoctrinated activists, who act out from egregious misunderstandings of capitalism taught to them by college professors who dreamt up their ideology with the aid of hallucinogenics and other mind altering substances in the late 1960s.

It is also an act of increativity, since the culture jammer is freed from having to create something original of their own, and instead barnacles their messaging onto an existing work of art, mass media, or communication.

"Dude, my professor told me that if I spray paint Che Guevara on a McDonald's billboard that I'll be culture jamming Mickey Dee's capitalist signal so they won't be able to disaffect the disproportionate disparities of the disenfranchised with their concentration camp chicken, man."

culture jamming by Schnorkenschneider February 14, 2014

Culture-jammin' 

the act of appropriating different cultural practices into an activity.

"Sara are you eating a muffin w/chopsticks?"
"Yah, i'm totally culture-jammin'!!'"

see also: Cooking stir-fry w/pasta, eating sushi at a festival.

Culture-jammin' by chipchip November 20, 2012

culturejam 

(Noun) The use of visual, spoken or performance art to decry or draw attention to preconceptions, societal mores, governmental abuses or corporate waste, fraud and greed. Also related to culturejamming (V.)

Adbusters.org contains several excellent examples of culturejam.

culturejam by Rowan Ste. Julian August 25, 2003