Magazine critique
Adbusters is a popular alternative magazine started in 1989 by self-proclaimed “cultural jammer” Kalle Lasn and Bill Schamlz. As the title suggests, Adbusters is dedicated to exposing and undermining mainstream capitalist culture. Their mission statement says,“We are a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society.” it’s consistently one of the most, interesting and relevant magazines that actually discusses something of substance. While the mainstream media delivers little but clichés that never question the political and economic status quo, most alternative media tends to respond to the former in a predictable and mostly uninteresting, unoriginal and superficial way. Adbusters is one of the few (save perhaps for more obscure extreme left and anarchist journals) magazines that attempt to question and demolish the very memes and beliefs upon which mainstream society rests. On the other hand, there are some fundamental contradictions in the very essence of what Adbusters supposedly stands for.
We can start to examine the whole Adbusters dialectic by looking at the format and price. How, one might naturally ask, can a glossy magazine that sells for $10(online)claim to be leading the fight against global capitalism? The price alone makes it out of reach to all but privileged consumers (to use the leftist jargon proper to such discussions!) Then there’s the format of the magazine and what may be it’s best known feature -fake ads meant to parody real ones. The strange thing about this is that there is often little difference between Adbuster parody ads and the more sophisticated real ads found in many blatantly consumerist magazines, such as Wired or Rolling Stone. I just recently reviewed adbuster magazine