Adbusters: The History & Goals of a Social Movement
The Adbusters organization is an anti-capitalist, pro-environmental not-for-profit organization which uses a variety of communications tactics to challenge the wide range of cultural and physical implications of global capitalism. The social movement uses their self-supported publication Adbusters to spread their cause and gain support internationally. They employ striking visual imagery including cultural jamming, meta-memes and subvertisements to break the flow of commercial media messages and allow audiences to critically analyse the various short-comings of the capitalist political economy (Alock, 71). Particularly, the organization focuses on issues of media democracy, corporate transparency…show more content… Artists, activists, students, educators, entrepreneurs and even pranksters all ban together in order to critique the detrimental effects of commercial culture and gain more supporters in their cause. In doing so, these advocates advance the new social activist movement of the contemporary era and challenge the current status quo (Alock, 71). With their unique visual imagery and protest methods Adbusters attempts to erode the existing power structures of capitalism and foster a more physically and mentally sustainable society in the twenty-first century. The Adbusters organization publishes Adbusters as the main informational vehicle of the movement. It is a not-for-profit, reader-supported magazine that seeks to erode the negative environmental and cultural effects of consumerism. Ultimately, Adbusters is an environmental publication seeking to dissect relationships between human interactions and their physical and mental environments. The publication launched in 1989 with a circulation of merely 5000 copies; today, Adbusters reaches nearly 60,000 readers a week (Alock, 71). Throughout its 25 years of existence, Adbusters has amassed a significant following with their controversial and striking protest