E$$o Gas. (Culture Jamming)

As seen in the picture above, culture jamming is being accomplished via Photoshop techniques. Although this method is more recent as opposed to before the internet and software such as Adobe Photoshop were developed, culture jamming is also accomplished by changing advertisements in real life. Either way, culture jamming is a unique way of getting a point across to an audience.

Of course now with the internet, this has become much easier. Culture jamming usually is most effective when it accomplishes two things: grabbing the audience’s attention, and making a lasting impression. Some of the best examples of culture jamming will have the viewer actually questioning what the message the author was trying to make.

With the example above, it’s obvious the message is environmentalism. How do we know this? Well the target for the culture jam is an automobile company, and the text adds commentary to the image.

Most of the time (and also in the example at the top) the company isn’t targeted directly. This posted was edited mostly to encompass the large majority of car companies and consumers of SUV’s or large-type vehicles. However, culture jamming also targets specific companies. McDonalds is perhaps one of the biggest “victims” of culture jamming in fact; they are usually targeted about things like the quality of their food and the wages paid to employees.

These attacks on major corporations are a good thing. It allows attention to be brought to an issue on a wide scale. One person now becomes more important because of the anonymous message they have displayed to a great amount of people. Now with the power of the internet at our fingertips, more attention should be brought to culture jamming. One example is net neutrality. Culture jamming can be effectively used to bring more awareness to the issue of big ISP’s like Rogers and Bell trying to carve out their own internet highways.

This is actually happening, fortunately. Why not create your own culture jam with Photoshop? Upon visiting the right websites, tutorials can be used to learn to use Photoshop quickly. It’s not that hard, I promise.