Recent Blog Posts

Vancouverites: Support Media Democracy!

Show up at the B.C. Court of Appeal on Monday morning in support of Adbusters' lawsuit against Canwest Global

Kono
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12 Feb 2009
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10 comments

McDonald's can go on CBC Newsworld and tell us how great their Big Macs are, but Adbusters can’t buy airtime to point out that 50% of the calories in a Big Mac come from fat. The automobile manufacturers can buy as much time as they want to tell us how sexy their cars are, but Greenpeace is not allowed on to point out that the personal automobile is one of the primary causes of climate change. Every ad on TV glorifies consumption and tells us we can be happy if we buy things, but a Buy Nothing Day TV spot is not allowed on.

This lack of democracy on the public airwaves is what’s at stake in a legal action that’s going to be fought in the B.C. Supreme Court this Monday. Come to the courtroom and join people who are interested in fighting for the right to walk into their local TV station, put some money on the table and buy some airtime for some message that they believe in. Come and meet us there. Let’s fill the courtroom and win this battle for the public airwaves.

The hearing is at 10:00am on Monday, February 16th at the courthouse in downtown Vancouver (800 Smithe St.)

Campus Divestment Victory

Hampshire College has become the first US educational institution to divest from Israel.

Micah White
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12 Feb 2009
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12 comments

Two years of agitation have paid off for activists at Hampshire College

Hampshire College in Amherest, MA was the first educational institution to divest from Apartheid South Africa. And now, thirty-five years later Hampshire has become the first educational institution to divest from Apartheid Israel. Activists at Hampshire College have been pushing for divestment for two years and their efforts are sure to kick off a wave of divestment movements across the world.

In a press release issued today by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the student group behind the divestment push, explain that their actions targeted six specific corporations who profit directly from the Israeli occupation:

"Our group pressured Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. Over 800 students, professors, and alumni have signed SJP’s "institutional statement" calling for the divestment.The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military with equipment and services in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza are: Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola, and Terex. Furthermore, our policy prevents the reinvestment in any company involved in the illegal occupation."

More information about the divestment campaign at Hampshire College can be found in the SJP Press Release and SJP Press Kit.

Hampshire was first, who will be next? Is this the start of a nationwide divestment surge?

Update: Hampshire College administration is contradicting the reports of SJP. While Hampshire admits to divesting from the above mentioned six companies, they are claiming that this was not directly focused on Israel. The Boston Globe is carrying the administration's perspective (link). The whole story is likely to emerge in coming days.

Update #2: The response from SJP is posted below in the comments.

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. Micah is currently writing a book of philosophical meanderings into the future of activism. He lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife and two cats. www.micahmwhite.com

Blog: Did Fairey Steal The Magic?

He may not owe AP anything, but that doesn't mean the image is his alone.

Sarah Nardi
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09 Feb 2009
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36 comments

Amid the thicket of legal issues surrounding the recent Shepard Fairey/Associated Press dispute over rights to the iconic "Hope" image, I can't help but think that we seem to have missed a fairly simply point. Fairey may not owe the AP anything, but he certainly owes the photographer responsible for the image something. I'm not talking about a cut of the profits or shared ownership of the rights – just an acknowledgment of the artist who originally captured Obama in that moment.

When I finally saw the two images side by side – the photograph, taken by photographer Mannie Garcia and Fairey's subsequent interpretation of it – I was struck by how little the original had actually been altered. Though Fairey's attorney contends that Fairey only used the photo as a reference and transformed it into "a stunning, abstracted and idealized visual image that created powerful new meaning and conveys a radically different message," the transcendent solemnity that gives the image its power is fully evident in the original photograph.

Fairey may have had the vision to immortalize the image, but it was Garcia who had the prescience to immortalize the moment. Why did it take a lawsuit for this photograph and its provenance to become public knowledge? If Fairey's talent as an artist lies within his ability to abstract and idealize existing imagery, then why is he so unwilling to openly reference his sources? In this case, I think Fairey should have given credit where credit is due and that he should have done so long before lawyers became involved.

Feb 10, 2009: This post has been updated.

Blackspot Debt Collection Agency

What if we purchased old debt and forgave it?

Micah White
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09 Feb 2009
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20 comments

Screen capture from third-party collection agency that is selling consumer debt for pennies on the dollar.

Citizens in the United States, and the rest of the world, have been saddled with an inescapable amount of debt. The average US household has more than $8,000 in credit card debt, up from about $3,000 in 1990. At 18% interest, $8000 will take more than 25 years to repay and ultimately cost more than $24,000. American students are graduating already deep in debt: the average student has $20,000 in student loans (source). I propose a novel solution to the consumer debt crisis: a Blackspot Collection Agency that buys and burns debt.

What happens when a person is unable to pay their debts? After receiving a few nasty calls and letters their debt is usually written off as a business loss and sold to a third-party collection agency. The third-party collection agency then legally owns the debt and may either try to collect the debt or may sell it again. By the time the debt reaches the stage of being sold for the third time, it is worth considerably less because the capitalist's hopes of recovering the full amount are slim. For example, in the screen capture above, you will notice that $2528.67 worth of credit card debt is currently being sold for only $110.91. There is someone out there in Klawock, Alaska whose $2528 worth of old credit card debt could be forgiven for pennies on the dollar.

What if we created a Blackspot Collection Agency that purchased old debt and forgave it? Doing so would undermine the foundations of the debt society by encouraging widespread debt disobedience by people who hope the Blackspot Collection Agency will buy and forgive their debt. And by forgiving the debt of average people, the Blackspot Collection Agency would prove that the anti-capitalists are doing more for the "common man" than the mega-corporations.

Could a Debt Forgiveness Agency work? What other ways can we escape consumer society's debt trap?

Poster Boy

The 27-year-old Brooklyn artist was arrested on Saturday.

Sarah Nardi
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06 Feb 2009
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17 comments

A rising star in the underground scene, the artist known as Poster Boy was arrested at an event in SoHo on Saturday. The 27 year-old Brooklyn resident was apprehended by plain clothes officers who were tipped off to the artist’s presence by fliers advertising the event. The arrest marked the culmination of a months-long search for the elusive subway artist. There’s only one problem. The man officers arrested, Henry Matyjewicz, isn’t Poster Boy. A source quoted by the New York Times claims that Matyjewicz is a legal artist whose role is to propagate the ideals of the Poster Boy movement. “Henry Matyjewicz,” insists the source, “is innocent.” For those who haven’t heard of him, Poster Boy is an anti-consumerist guerilla artist commonly hailed as New York’s answer to Banksy. But unlike the enigmatic Brit, Poster Boy attacks consumer culture head-on, targeting the myriad advertisements that litter the city’s subway tunnels. Wielding a razor blade and a wit equally as sharp, the artist removes and recombines elements of self-adhesive posters to create subversive “mash-ups” of corporate ads. After spending a few minutes with Poster Boy, an ad for the film Iron Man reads Iran = Nam and a Puma spot featuring Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt is fitted with the slogan McEndorse the World. And though his work has drawn considerable attention and praise since appearing on the scene nearly a year ago, Poster Boy has no intention of capitalizing on his fame. “I want people to know that this can exist,” he says in a documentary produced by People We Love. “An artist can make art that doesn’t have to be justified through an institution.” Unlike other street artists that have assimilated into the mainstream, for Poster Boy there will be no copyright, no authorship, no galleries and no private collections. As an artist, he claims, he is uninterested in “making things for bored rich people to hang above their couch.” Sources close to the artist maintain that there are, in fact, multiple “Poster Boys” presently engaged in the project which would explain why Matyjewicz took the fall in SoHo on Saturday. As all culture jammers know, any viable movement must transcend the individual. When it comes to Poster Boy, I hope he inspires legions.

Ad Industry Fouls Again

The Super Bowl commercials are known for being clever and innovative, but this year's crop appeals to our basest instincts.

Sarah Nardi
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03 Feb 2009
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9 comments

The universally tepid response to yesterday’s lineup of Super Bowl ads indicates that we’ve come to expect a certain degree of innovation from advertisers who drop millions to purchase game-time spots (remember “1984” Apple ad directed by Ridley Scott ?).

But in light of the economic downturn and increasing financial woes, advertisers chose to play it safe this year, foregoing any auteur-driven cultural watersheds for crotch humor and talking babies. Although always absurd, the price of Super Bowl spots is particularly outrageous this year ($3 million for 30 seconds) and advertisers clearly didn’t want to take any chances. So they appealed to our base nature (guy taking a snow globe to the groin, giant fake breasts) and our sentimentality (horsey love story, dog adoptions).

Pepsi even tried to rewrite history by casting what was in fact Richard Nixon's preferred drink as the nectar that unified the counter-culture (with an assist from Bob Dylan who now joins Dennis Hopper in the ranks of anti-establishment icons cum celebrity establishment endorsers). I was curious to see how this gluttonous capitalist ritual would be handled at a time when capitalism is teetering on the brink. After yesterday, I have my answer. Advertisers chose to speak to us like we’re idiots and hoped that we would be so distracted by that poor guy’s crotch, that we’d sit back, crack a Pepsi and keep on buying this shit.

Blackspot Sighted in Venice

Adbusters reader finds Anti-Nike sentiments in Italy.

Micah White
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03 Feb 2009
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7 comments

Photo of Anti-Nike graffiti in Venice, Italy

Apparently not everyone is fooled by Nike's 2003 purchase of Converse for $305 million. An Adbusters reader wrote to tell us that in a recent trip to Italy, he discovered Blackspot graffiti:

Dear Adbusters,

For the month of January I studied economics and the envirnment in Italy. Overall I learned alot and one of the high lights of the trip was seeing this blackspot tagged on a wall in Venice. I have been a reader for half a year now and I flipped out when I saw this and my group did not understand so I gave them my explanation regarding what your views are and alot of them checked out your website. The Nike wears were a little agitated I think but at least I made them think. Anyway I attatched the picture of the two that I saw and I just want to let you know that your word is spreading all over the world.

M. T.

Pacific Lutheran University

Turkish PM Storms Out of the World Economic Forum

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is silenced in Davos, but returns to a hero’s welcome in Turkey.

Paul
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30 Jan 2009
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4 comments

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed off the stage during a panel discussion about Gaza at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday. Erdogan became upset after the moderator, David Ignatius of the Washington Post, initially refused to let him respond to a passionate 25 minute defense of Israel’s recent incursion into Gaza offered by President Shimon Peres. Ignatius then haltingly agreed to give the prime minister one minute to respond but soon interrupted pleading, “Please…we need to get these people to dinner.” Erdogan’s words may not have been heard in the West, but his actions struck a chord with people in Turkey. He returned to Istanbul in the wee hours of the morning to thousands of cheering supporters waving Turkish and Palestinian flags. Link

War Crimes Trials?

Activists attempt to bring charges against the Israeli leadership in the international court system.

Kono
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27 Jan 2009
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16 comments

Bracing for a onslaught of international lawsuits, Israeli officials responsible for ordering and executing the Gaza offensive are now facing the very real possibility of being arrested and tried for war crimes in the ICC. An activist site launched from within Israel has issued arrest warrants for Tzipi Livni, Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak and urges anyone who has knowledge of the suspects’ plans for international travel to immediately contact The Hague. The age of Israeli impunity seems to be giving way to a harsh new reality.

Link

Our Blackspot Moment

85,000 people were fired on Monday. How will we collectively respond?

Micah White
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27 Jan 2009
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4 comments

The AFP reports that 85,000 people globally lost their jobs on Monday as mega-corporations desperate for profits dump their human chattel overboard. But the ship is sinking and throwing us to the sharks won't save the capitalists. In these times of unparalleled economic uncertainty, it is within the power of culturejammers to change the course of history. This is our Blackspot moment: we start local, blackspot businesses and kick out the mega-corporations.

How many culture jammers actually know how to start a small business? It is time that we learn. The blackspot will be built through head-to-head competition with the corporations currently choking our local communities. And they won't go down without a fight. Unless we are willing to take risks by entering capitalist dominated territory, we will never be able to reclaim our culture from their grip.

Let's talk specifics, the main difficulty that we face when opening a blackspot in our community is raising the start-up capital. The fact of the matter is that bank loans are not a viable option for blackspots due to their demands for personal collateral and high interest rates. No bank (within the U.S.) will give a loan to a small business without securing the loan with your house, car, personal assets, or assets of your family. And in these economic times, that may not even be enough. However, given that accepting money from a bank is usually no different than accepting corporate donations, I think most blackspotters will agree that we should refuse bank loans outright. Without the possibility of a bank loan, we will need to turn elsewhere to fund the initial start up capital for our blackspots. It is here that I propose a slightly modified version of an idea that has already been floating around: blackspot microloans.

Unlike traditional microloans, I propose that blackspot microloans be given by individuals to local blackspots in leiu of a donation. For example, if the anticipated start up costs of a blackspot cultureshop that will employ 3 people in a rural town is $15,000 then this blackspot would solicit loans from individual culture jammers at a reasonable interest rate of 2% to be repaid over the course of three years. Although 2% may not sound like much it is reasonable when one realizes that at this very moment the stock market is hemorrhaging, banks failing and the average savings account is yielding under 1%. Funding our own local blackspot businesses would immediately shift the traditional division of power between consumers and corporations into a mutually sustaining relationship of active participation. The local blackspot benefits by receiving low interest rate loans in a time of economic turmoil, the community benefits from a truly local and unique business that provides jobs, and those who gave the loans benefit through a modest return on their investment. Those individuals who still prefer to donate their money could ask that the loan be repaid to a general blackspot start-up fund that would provide seed money to other culture jammers. As you can see, a blackspot economy could very quickly develop based upon this proposed model.

Ultimately, the future success of the culture jammer movement, the demise of global capitalism and its byproduct of mental pollution, depends upon doing away with the mentality of charity. Instead of desperately waiting for a few pennies to be donated, it is time to look around our local communities and identify potential financially viable blackspot opportunities. Each employee hired by these blackspots, each dollar of profit that goes towards funding full-time culture jamming, and each individual turned from consumer to participant will bring us one step closer to our vision of a non-corporate future.

Can we turn this economic crisis into an opportunity for the renewal of local, anti-corporate cultures?

A longer version of this article originally appeared in Adbusters #75 under the title "Blackspot the Future".