'I'll say anything to sell this crap.'

As I was sifting through a variety of culture jams on the internet, I stumbled upon this form of a culture jam:


(Image from here)

I have heard of these stickers before; you can buy them, or make your own, and slap them on a public wall, advertisement, poster, etc and voila! Instant culture jam. This one came from http://www.mixthemessage.com.

However, when I was looking at this one, I slowly began to question the message given out by a culture jam such as this one. Could it create a positive message for one person, while another person may find it creates a negative message?

For instance, my first thought of course was that this is a culture jam against large corporations, advertising companies, big brand names, and in this case, against the beauty industry. A simple sticker to represent the idea that advertisments and corporations will sink to any level to up their sales and get as many people using their product.

However, I started wondering... Could this imply other messages? Instead of advocating against mass media and the big corporations, could it at the same time be creating another message?

The sticker is placed so that the woman in the advertisement is saying it. From this I find it starts to feel less like it's the companies and the beauty industry that are giving the message of “I'll say anything to sell this crap” and more like it's the woman in the advertisement that is saying it. Instead of the corporations using whatever means to get what they want, it's the model – the woman – who will do anything to get what she wants. This idea plays into certain cultural stereotypes: the shop-a-holic who loses control and can't keep track of her own spending, the spoiled girlfriend who always gets things her way, the high-class office woman who will sabotage anyone in her way to stay on top – it's the woman who always gets what she wants.

This reminds me of the discussion we had in class about individual interpretation. Depending on your social location, the messages perceived in popular culture and culture jams will reflect your own personal experiences and beliefs.

In terms of feminist social justice, the effectiveness of certain culture jams really depends on the creator, the audience and the individual interpretation. I think that in some contexts, culture jamming could actually work against the idea of feminist social justice. If a difference is made from culture jamming, who gets the 'social justice'? Does this mean that at the same time it may be oppressing or reinforcing stereotypes about another group of people?

-Cyoinea