Reviews
Media Empowerment Kit from Adbusters
October 16, 2007
a review by Barry Duncan
Adbusters magazine, published by the Media Foundation in Vancouver, is arguably the most popular magazine promoting cultural dissent today. Starting as a modest Canadian magazine (printed on newsprint), the vast majority of subscribers (120,000) are now American. The magazine and the website welcome your responses to consumer culture and important ecological and social issues: clear cutting forests, our addiction to fast food and gas guzzling cars, and top-down hegemonic agendas from corporate power.
It should be no surprise that educators, especially media educators, are among their biggest fans and now Adbusters has brought out a helpful " Media Empowerment Kit". This consists of a binder of materials, post cards, posters and a DVD and several spoof commercials. Most of the material is drawn from back issues of the magazine.
The contents are organized into three sections:
1. Explore your mental environment (e.g. ads, alcohol, tobacco, the beauty industry,TV addiction)
2. Explore your physical environment (How cool are cars, How big is your ecological footprint? Buy Nothing Day)
3. Create Your Own meaning (writing letters, doing spoof ads, buying space for showing your own TV commercials)
In these first two sections there are readings followed by activities.
As a media educator I have been ambivalent about the Media Foundation’s work. The magazine, printed on glossy paper, has recently been a showcase for philosophical rants (Marc Derry and Mark Kingwell) propped up by post-apocalyptic visuals. One issue was published with a bullet hole in the centre. I admire the wit even if I don’t agree with the direction such provocations may take us. However, as a vehicle to teach about the media, there are many reasons to be suspicious. The framework/ideology is very clear and monolithic: the media are "toxic pollutants".
Turning to the Empowerment Kit, the tone is set by the following overview statement:
"Explore your mental environment which looks at the psychological implications of our fast-paced, electronic, commercialized, but, often unfulfilling culture."
The initial lesson begins with the teacher holding up a poster about toxic culture and thereby establishing a pedagogy which is reinforced throughout that the mass media are all bad for you, that the simple life is best; we should rid of cars and junk food - all with the alleged purpose of being protected from the terrible symptoms of our consumer driven society.
In progressive media education classes, we try to counteract this kind of cultural diatribe by teaching a comprehensive set of key concepts which contextualize media texts, from documentaries to the ads used in product placement. These includes codes and conventions, audience response, representation (gender, race, age and class), and media industries. We try to have classes conducting open-ended discussion/debate which fosters non-polarized media analysis.
The topics covered in the kit include TV addiction, alcohol and tobacco ads, obesity and junk food, the beauty industry, and ecological damage. In spite of my previous negative remarks, there are some worthwhile debates and projects implicit in these topics.
The final section on "Create your own Meaning, for do-it-yourself activism" offers solid advice on writing letters and making TV spots.
Probably the best-known Adbusters activity is its culture-jamming parodies such as Joe Chemo, Calvin Swine and the many riffs on Absolute Vodka (e.g. Absolute Nonsense). Students are encouraged to do their own spoof ads and they receive plenty of good instruction. In the process, they will all have their share of laughs, and never feel uncomfortable. Why? Hard hitting satire with real bite is unlikely to happen. All of which is relevant for discussing just how we are meant to define that elusive title word ‘empowerment’. The kit does not adequately explain it. Are we to conclude, however, that kids attacking the media will guarantee a reserved seat inside Adbusters’ mental environment?
The kit lacks a resource list of books, DVDs and Web sites, which sends a message that all that teachers’ need for the media classroom is self-contained.
Educators would do well to debate the Media Foundation’s work. There is much to admire and much to question. For example, Naomi Klein’s No Logo (2000) argues that much of Adbusters’ tactics are too soft and ineffectual. More recently, in 2004 Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter wrote Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can’t be Jammed. Here their conclusion succinctly stated is that cultural dissent has already been successfully co-opted. Don’t wait for the next revolution, it may be too late.
Cost of kit is $125.00.
Adbusters: 1243 West 7th Avenue Vancouver B.C., Canada V6H 1B7