In Kalle Lasn’s book, Culture Jam, Lasn explains how America has become a valuable money-making brand that has been underhandedly affecting people’s behavior and the way they think. With that said, Lasn and his fellow culture jammers want to halt the corrupted ways of advertising in American branding. In doing this, Lasn dismantles advertisements and exposes corporate agendas and how advertisers often use fear to convince consumers that they need their products. To counter these advertising influences, Lasn shows consumers how to see brands for what they really are by taking the cool out of marketed products, icons, and trends. In addition, Lasn also stresses that we are a culture who spends an unhealthy amount of time watching television that has resulted in the corrosion of our psyche into a trance-like state. Lasn not only brings our attention to these alarming issues in our culture, he provides many ways on how consumers’ can break the trance and take back their lives. And in my opinion, this is exactly what people need from Lasn, a “jolt” of awareness; a new perspective on how to maintain well-being and authenticity while living in a corporate-driven environment.
One of the first issues Lasn argues is how corporations are messing with our minds. According to Lasn, advertising works in the same way brain washing does. In a study conducted by Dr. Cameron in Montreal, “the idea of the CIA-sponsored depatterning experiments was to outfit conscious, unconscious or semiconscious subjects with headphones, and flood their brains with thousands of repetitive driving messages that would alter their behavior over time” (CJ 19). As a result, many of the “guinea pigs” who willingly participated in these experiments suffered some major mental problems, which in turn affected their behavior. The connection Lasn is making is that we voluntarily act as guinea pigs every day by watching ads on TV, seeing brands worn or placed in movies, by browsing our favorite magazines or newspapers. All of these things are embedded with depatterning repetitive messages that have the intent of altering our behavior; to persuade us into buying products. And to be honest, with the connecting information Lasn has laid on the table, the evidence alarmingly supports his claim. Like Lasn has expressed, we need to be aware of how advertising works so we can resist becoming depatterned into something we are not.
The next thing Lasn contends is the corruption occurring in corporate advertising. For this, Lasn uses past cigarette company advertisements as the base of his argument. According to Lasn, cigarette ads were telling the public that “cigarettes were safe and the right to smoke superseded the right to breathe clean air” (CJ 13). Lasn explains how this was a flat out lie, cigarette corporations knew cigarettes were killing people and they just did not care. All they cared about was making their profit, even if it was at the expense of a person’s life or suffering. Furthermore, Lasn then makes the point that their ads were even were targeting children with cartoon characters like “Camel Joe” because they knew the younger a person picks up the smoking habit, the greater the chance the person has at becoming a lifer. And again, in my opinion, Lasn successfully proves his argument. He has clearly shows that corporations do not care about the well-being of others; they only care about making money. His point about cigarette companies targeting children reminded me of when they were selling “Lucky Strike” candy cigarettes. Now thinking about it, it is eye-opening to realize that on top of being liars, corporations can be appallingly, morally corrupt. Lasn displays a perfect example of why it is so important for people to be aware of corrupt advertising; it is for their own well-being.
Another issue Lasn states is that people are slowly being instilled with insecurities by the media. According to Lasn, he explains how “healthy women are sometimes led by women’s magazines to believe they suffer from such “afflictions” as “violin deformity” or “batwing disorder” – and feel compelled to go under the knife to remedy them” (CJ 75). In fact, according to Lasn, some models have gone to the extreme of having their lower ribs removed to give the appearance of a smaller waist line and these are the people who are displayed in our magazines as role models. The most compelling part of his argument, in my opinion, belongs to his “Obsession Fetish” campaign. The content of the campaign questions why nine out ten women feel unhappy about some part of their body, while a woman sitting in front of a toilet throws up; it ends with the message “the beauty industry is the beast” (CJ 177). The reason Lasn’s argument is so compelling is because his evidence can be seen every day. I can’t count how many stories I have watched or read on the pressures the beauty industries have put on women. In fact, it is because of these pressures that women advocates like Super Model and talk show host Tyra Banks have publicly told magazines and paparazzi to kiss her fat “bleep” after they publicly ridiculed her weight-gain while she was doing a swim photo shoot. Lasn is right, women and men need a “jolt” of reality; they need to learn how to take pride in their individuality, make their health top priority, and buck the “ideal” image of beauty portrayed in the media.
The next thing Lasn stresses is the importance of taking the “cool” out of marketing, he calls this strategy demarketing. According to Lasn, “demarketing is about uncooling our consumer culture, reclaiming the real, recovering some of what has been lost since consumerism became the First World’s new religion” (CJ 167). He says one of the first steps is uncooling consumption by adjusting your perception to life which consists of living everyday with the objective to live to the fullest with the least amount of consumption. For example, he says it is cooler to ride a bicycle instead of driving around in a BMW or to wear a plain shirt instead of a $125 name brand golf shirt. He also says you could uncool fast food or mega markets by buying food from your local farmers market because it is cooler supporting your community than corporate food chains. Lasn’s logic in supporting the importance of demarketing speaks for itself. A person doesn’t need the most expensive designer shirt to insure a fun day of golf. More importantly, this new outlook on life will not only loosen advertiser’s influential grip on us, with Lasn’s help, we can learn how to truly live in the process.
The next issue Lasn emphasizes is the value in maintaining mental well-being and authenticity. Lasn stresses his concerns on how corporate mental pollution is corroding our minds, turning us into drones. He says, “real living had been replaced by prepackaged experiences and media-created events: the spectacle had “kidnapped” our real lives, co-opting whatever authenticity we once had” (CJ 101). Lasn contends that after watching the same images and hearing the same messages over and over, we might begin to believe that the spectacle projected in the media is how real life is or should be. And in this process, we lose our authenticity. In order to stay true to ourselves, Lasn believes we must maintain our “mindscape” by allowing ourselves some peace and quiet by turning off the TV or taking a break from our laptops. Lasn says it may feel like a shock to your body not having that constant stimulation, but sometimes that is just what the body needs; a time to keep the noise out so you can find your true self. Although Lasn doesn’t use scientific evidence to support his theories on mental wellness and authenticity, he provides a sufficient amount of logical information that to me, just makes sense. By giving yourself a mental break from the media, you are ultimately taking care of you.
Finally, one of the last things Lasn encourages is a way to break out of the “mass-cultural trance”, take back your life, and possibly adopt a new way of living. The first tactic is called derive and it was first introduced by the Dadaists. According to Lasn, derive is living like a drifter, “open to whatever you come in contact with, thus exposing yourself to the whole spectrum of feelings you encounter by chance in everyday life” (CJ 102-103). In this journey, Lasn says you are to discover the things you love and hate, as well as critique all the ideas of happiness along the way. The next tactic Lasn introduces for breaking the trance is called detournement, which involves challenging or overturning the meanings of images or of your surroundings. Again, Lasn says that you would be constantly questioning things as oppose to passively accepting traditional meanings into your mind. Detournement is allowing yourself to have different perspectives virtually about everything you come in contact with, of course during your deriviste. In my opinion, these two tactics will work great for people in maintaining their authenticity because they will be going through life with an open-mind while at the same time, constantly evaluating everything. For me, I am thoroughly convinced that this “new way of living” Lasn has presented throughout his book will not only do what Lasn argues it will do, it will prove to be a revitalizing learning experience.
Reflection
What I learned while writing this essay was how pulling all the information together from Lasn’s book really helped me in understanding all of his ideas as a whole. And in this process, I realized that many of my views about today’s Culture have changed along the way. I truly had a lot of fun responding to Lasn’s beliefs and objectives.
As for the technical sides of writing, I feel strongly that I have picked up some great writing skills that will help me succeed in many aspects of life. For example, I have to write an essay on why I should be accepted into a radiology program in case acceptance into this program comes down to a tie. It feels good to know that I have some new skills that will help me in putting together a strong essay. Thanks Brian for all your help this semester!
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