Rating: 
Summary: Too much consuming?
Review: Culture Jam, by Kalle Lasn, provides unique insight into America as a consumer-driven country. He says that "America is a multitrillion dollar brand" (xii) that people worldwide are succumbing to, meaning that we have become subordinates to corporations, the economy, and the media by the influence they have over us. Lasn says that Americans have fallen into a monotonous routine of consuming and working and to solve this problem, he and his fellow 'culture jammers' are creating a social movement. He proposes this 'culture jam' to resist the way institutions control our lives through advertising and their economic power.
Lasn says that America appears to be a great country, but underneath everyone is struggling. People go to work at a job they don't like for a corporation they don't care about just to make lots of cash to live the 'American dream'. Yet no one is truly happy. Lasn writes that this problem can be solved by awareness of industry's influence on us and by promoting things like 'By Nothing Day' to decrease it. Lasn states that ads are a problem because they have become so involved in our lives we don't even know what it is to live without them. The next section shows how one can actively get involved in the culture jam. It explains examples of anti-ads that promote environmentalism and unpopularize brand name products. If America is successfully 'de-branded' laws will support individuals and not companies. Citizens will be able to decide whether they want a new McDonalds in their neighborhood or not, and anyone will be able to gain access to public air and tv waves, not just companies with money or power. Lasn believes freedom will once again be a right for everyone not just corporations with the most power and money, and he shows how progress is being made with each new jammer jumping on board. I found Kalle Lasn's book very interesting and informative of the social problems we as a society face but are not always aware of. Overall the book was a good eye-opener to important issues from an environmentalist point of view although it was a little repetitive in referring to the influence of advertising and the media. It made me really think about how much we as individuals let corporations influence our lives. One commercial or email advertisement may not seem like a big deal, but as Lasn points out, when we get sick of them, we cannot stop them. Consumers are the ones paying for services and who are supposed to have the rights and freedoms listed in the Constitution, yet corporations have somehow gained power over individuals in this regard. He also makes a good point about how our economy's success is measured by the GDP but "if the economy is doing well does that mean that the Exxon Valdez spill was a success because it boosted GDP?"(203). We need to address our leaders with questions like these to change how our society is organized since it is not as effective as it once was. It did a good job influencing me that everyone contributing to the culture jam does make a difference whether they boycott brand name products or question a company's authority in the individual's world.
Rating: 
Summary: The "Uncooling" of American Culture
Review: Reading Culture Jam made me feel dejected, awakened, terrified and energized all at the same time. Kalle Lasn made me never want to put his book down because he pointed out all of the things that have gone wrong in our culture and he also gave some solutions that we could do to attempt to solve these problems and reclaim authentic American culture. "America is no longer a country but a multimillion-dollar brand," claims Kalle Lasn. This chilling quote sums up what many Americans have turned in to, consumers who let the media control what we think.
Americans have lost much of its' diversity and also our ability to think for ourselves. We walk around daily seeing thousands of people and so many of them are wearing the same name brands, going to the same fast food restaurants and living the same "American" dream which Lasn points out as, "a dream of wealth, power, fame, plenty of sex and exciting recreational activities." It is scary how many people are oblivious to the monotonous tone of our society, but Lasn makes it really clear in his book. I do not think he gives enough credit to the small things people do like avoiding fast food restaurants, shopping at thrift stores instead of the Gap, and walking instead of driving a car. Instead he focuses more on solutions that not everybody has in their grasp.
Lasn points out that we have lost so much of this diversity because of the prevalence of corporate advertising and the handful of corporations that are telling us what we should be wearing, eating, what beautiful looks like, and basically how we should be living out our lives. Advertising is everywhere you could look and the messages they send have been soaking into our brain since we were born. They brainwash us into thinking we need to be what they tell us to be or we are not "cool". Because of advertising a lot of people have lost the true meaning behind holidays, and now for many they are mainly an excuse to go buy things, which is exactly what the advertisers want.
One of the most terrifying things that Lasn points out is how difficult it is to try and speak out against the sponsors who put all of the advertisements out there. He points out how difficult it is to get even a short television spot to run a commercial like "Buy Nothing Day" because it is not in the best interest of the corporate sponsors who run the television stations. I feel that this is limiting our right to free speech if these corporations can control what is put on television and in newspapers. Lasn does give us some hope towards the end of the book as to what we can do to get ourselves out of the bind we are in. I think he did need to give us more solutions as to what the average person could do in their daily life to help out but he did give some solutions. I believe that everyone needs to read this book, mainly to open their eyes to see what our society has turned into instead of going through your daily routine ignoring that other people have instilled in your brain how you should be living your life.
Rating:
Summary: Inspires and Informs
Review: A lot of the material covered in this book was already familiar to me as a subscriber to Adbusters for a number of years and is a great introduction and overview of the themes presented in the magazine. This book will show you how our lives are controlled by corporations to the detriment of ourselves and the planet, featured topics are media control, growth of mood disorders, impact of television on human beings. There is a very interesting history of the U.S. in regards to corporations, for the first hundred years or so after liberation from Britain VERY suspicious of them, somehow though the corporations managed to gain the upper hand in the 20th century, especially after the second world war. This is not really a how-to guide for the activist, it is more to stimulate thought about certain issues and get you to pay attention and start thinking for yourself. I already agree with much of the author's critique on modern life, but would not choose the same responses necessarily that he has or recommends. A lot of the "memes" were great, "obsession for men" is hilarious and has been fun to pass along, also "we used to identify ourselves by our religion or political affiliation, but now we identify ourselves with the type of consumer we are, that is what kind of clothes we wear, the make of car we drive, etc. is what defines us as people", another one I enjoy repeating. But read it for yourself, there's a little something in this for everyone to think about.
Rating: 
Summary: a thought-provoking enjoyable read
Review: Culture Jam, by Kalle Lasn, presents an interesting, eye-opening, fast-paced lesson on the America's current society. This book focuses on America's over-zealous consumerism; "America is no longer a country. It's a multitrillion-dollar brand". Lasn provoked my mind to do some serious examining of my own life. Culture Jam is a scary but true story and one that every American should read. Lasn fills his book with many stirring and powerful examples of American consumerism. Some of the ideas in the book had crossed my mind before but Lasn was able to write his book in a way that helped explain the situation and ideas clearly. I also learned a lot of new ideas such as what things contribute to the GDP; For example, the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska as well as the Gulf War increased the GDP. What makes this information so appalling is to learn that unpaid or volunteer work contributes nothing to the GDP. The book is filled with similar information and examples that captivate the reader. In the beginning of the book, Lasn writes about the natural world. He explores the idea that as people become greater consumers they turn less to the outdoors. I found this section particularly interesting mainly because the environment is my field of study. I agreed with most of what Lasn was saying, especially the following quote, "The moment you fail to understand why the natural world might have any relevance in the day-to-day lives of human beings, you abandon your sense of the divine. More than that, you lose track of who you are". This part of the book really resonates with my views and ideas regarding nature. A great aspect of this book is that I think every person who reads it will find a section that he/she really connects with. Despite the many positive aspects of Culture Jam, there is one major fault. While Lasn tells the reader what is wrong with American society he fails to offer any simple daily examples of actions to take to break the consumer cycle. Lasn provides many examples of specific consumerism and tells the reader why this action is wrong. The book has a way of making the reader feel guilty and develop a deep desire to change his/her lifestyle. In one section of the book, a few major anti-consumerism actions are described but for the common American citizen these actions may be too drastic. It would be very beneficial to the reader if the book offered examples of smaller actions a person can start off with. Lasn cannot expect someone to jump in full force right away. From the book, the reader should be able to infer what sort of actions can be taken such as eating at McDonalds and not buying expensive designer clothing but it would definitely be more helpful to all readers if Lasn would provide a few possible actions. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. This book is so different from any college text book I have ever read which might contribute to its attractiveness. Overall, Culture Jam is a great book with a powerful, intriguing, important message.
Rating:
Summary: Divisive yet insightful
Review: Kalle Lasn's 'Culture Jam' is indeed a call to arms for a 21st century generation that seems more distracted than ever by the pervasive power of mindless consumption. Adbusters magazine has been at the forefront of consumer critique, developing a manifesto that obviously strikes a chord with a growing readership, given its current circulation of over 120,000. In the opening introduction Lasn makes some rather remarkable statements: "For us feminism has run out of steam" p.xii; he then goes on to state "The old political battles......- black versus white, Left versus Right, male versus female - will fade into the background" p.xvi. This is an ignorantly optimistic conjecture in a world where aparthied still existed in Africa's largest economy less than a generation ago, a world where the vast majority of women are denied the same political rights as men and in the U.S. where they don't even have a universal healthcare system. Lasn seems to suffer from the same illusions as his heros the situationists, that somehow, in the West at least, basic human needs have all been satisfied i.e. freedom from poverty, hunger and homelessness. This may not be a wild idea in Canada where Lasn and Adbusters are based. Consistently touted by the U.N. as the best country in the world in which to live, Canada's reputation for higher standards of living is in part due to the pioneering campaigns of noted left-wingers like Tommy Douglas. Douglas, a former premier of Saskatchewan brought in a cheap and affordable healthcare system for his province in the 1960's, which soon spread throughout the rest of Canada thereafter. It is true to say that much of the time identity politics operates in a postmodern culture obsessed with diversity in and of itself, rather than any notion of universal revolution. A position which plays into the hands of largely right-wing libertarians who see greater diversity as an opportunity to develop new markets. But to believe that gender, race and class are no longer issues that affect the first world gives those on the right too much comfort. Other dubious assertions include Lasn's belief that daily exposure to media violence shapes the way we feel about crime and punishment "even though I can't prove it with hard facts" p.18 On the more postive side of the book, there's an interesting piece on how we in the West are increasingly finding it more difficult to appreciate our immediate surroundings without framing it with a camera viewfinder. Lasn also uses the example of a poet who read his poems at parties and no one listened to him, but when he played recordings of himself, everyone listened (shades of David Cronenberg's 1982 film 'Videodrome'). Where Lasn is at his strongest is in his study of the development of corporate power under American law. The 1886 ruling by the Supreme Court in the U.S. which granted the private corporation the rights of a 'natural person' under the U.S. Constitution, has had profound effects on American political and economic culture since then. Unlike most individuals, corporations have huge financial resources and as a consequence have a much greater say in the running of the economy, greater stamina in the courts and greater access to the media (which they probably own anyway) than any individual could hope to have. Globalization is the effective spread of this corporate disease throughout the rest of the world. Another important area that Lasn tackles is how we measure prosperity. Classical economists seem to believe that there is no shortage to the Earth's natural resources and even if we did deplete all of them we should still be able to develop the technology to provide for everyone on the planet. The problem with classical economics is that it is not a science i.e. it is not concerned with an understanding of nature, but simply with an understanding of models. The best example of which is the concept of GDP, which increases everytime money is put into the economy for whatever reason; war, illness, cleaning up environmental damage and so on. A better way of measuring prosperity would be the ISEW (Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare) which takes into account factors such as pollution, depletion of nonrenewable resources and industrial related health costs. Despite his attacks on the traditional Left, Lasn seems perfectly happy to hold true to explicitly Marxist sentiments such as living not as an object of history but as a subject: "That's about as good a working definition of the culture jammers ethos as you'll ever hope to find" p.100. Lasn also makes a welcome attack on the Slacker generation whose disdain for any kind of earnestness in politics has become the apathetic norm. We should use our irreverance pointedly but a surfeit of irony contributes to social corrosion and a general malaise in putting the effort in. It is in the media world where corporate power has its most obvious influence, especially in the U.S. It's almost impossible to find objective news on American commercial T.V. The only reason that CNN runs Adbusters' commercials for Buy Nothing Day is that Ted Turner likes to think of himself as a bit of a liberal in comparison to his arch-nemesis Rupert Murdoch. Lasn's difficulty in getting airtime elsewhere for his Adbustes' commercials shows an open ideological bias at work within media conglomerates, whose primary function is not to provide news but to sell advertising space. Lasn's tract is useful in highlighting the increasing hegemony of corporate power in America. Although his lefty-bashing has less impact for many of us in Europe where left-wing governments can still initiate large and meaningful changes. However, American foreign policy influences the whole world and 'Culture Jam' makes us more aware of the forces that shape it.
Rating:
Summary: Raving review
Review: If, for some reason, I was able to create a law whereby everyone was required to read the book Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn, I strongly believe that the world would be a better place. In his book, Lasn points out to his readers all of the errors that our society has made in the process of creating our culture.
He touches many of our culture's problems (consumption, poor body image, environmental issues) and examines how the media has had its affect on each of them. The media has become the people. By this, I mean the people live through "brands, products, fashions, celebrities, entertainments." These things "are our culture now. [The people's] role is mostly to listen and watch-and then based on what we have heard and seen, to buy (p. xiii)." The media has turned us into lean mean buying machines-always striving for the newest and the coolest item on the market (which isn't even cool until the media says so).
People have separated themselves from their natural environment, and now live mostly through a consumptive, technology based world. In many ways this impacts the environment negatively, but mostly because "If the Earth felt less like something out there and more like an extension of our bodies, we'd care for it like kin (p. 6)." With all of the problems in our natural environment, people still pretend not to acknowledge or care about it.
The way the media works, Lasn explains, is first by creating fear; fear of not fitting in, not being cool, fear of traveling to foreign places (terrorism), and fear of corruption. "Fear breeds insecurity-and then consumer culture offers us a variety of ways to buy our way back to security (p. 17)." The fear implanted on the people guides their actions everyday. People have become "mediated self-constructions (p. 44)" at the aid of our media. We don't have to think if the media shows us everything from how to fight with our friends to how to have sex with our lovers.
Lasn's book is about "wanting to live 'not as an object but as a subject of the story' (p. 100)." He inspires the reader to create their own world and offers a variety of ways to help it along. If people were tuned in to how the media downplays one's own identity, perhaps they would turn off the TV and go outside for a walk or talk with a friend.
Lasn's book has been the most effective that I have read on this topic. He puts things into words that I had only scrambled thoughts of. He pulls the man out from behind the curtain and points his finger. "You are the cause of our suffering" he says to corporate America. He addresses old issues and concerns with a new twist. For example, instead of just fewer cars on the road, Lasn suggests to create "cities designed chiefly with pedestrians, bicycles, and public transport in mind. Not just new ecofriendly products, but new consumption patterns and new lifestyles (p. 112)."
Lasn says it all in a manner that demands the reader's attention, thus really getting his point across. The voice in the book becomes the voice of a charismatic speaker in the reader's mind. The book reads conversationally with the use of different literary devices. He uses repetition to create rhythm and really leave an impression on the reader.
Culture Jam really hit home for me. Everywhere I look, I relate the book to what I see. When I was reading it I couldn't put it down, and now that I've finished the book my mind still obsesses with it. The themes of the book are so prevalent in our culture- it's impossible to ignore.
Rating:
Summary: I Hope This Is Part One
Review: If you're looking at this book, chances are you've already come to the conclusion that there's something deeply, seriously wrong with modern American culture. Community is disrupted, economic principles favor the wealthy few over the working many, and government is unresponsive to our demands. The environment is in freefall, education is a joke, and you can't talk to your loved ones because they're too damn busy watching the idiot box. Now you want to do something about it. This book consistently fails to tell you how. For the greatest part of the book, public-interest advocate Kalle Lasn holds forth on the problems with our society, from the small (mindless TV addiction) to the medium-sized (allowing fashion companies to dictate our ideals of beauty) to the monumental (destructive, unsustainable economic practices). All this is useful, enlightening stuff to know, but let's be frank, we wanted to read this book because we already had an idea of these facts. Now we want some ideas of what to do about it. The subtitle on the front cover promises to tell you "How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge." Good luck finding that. Lasn is fond of patting himself on the back for his past efforts in that direction, but he doesn't really tell the reader what an individual, with an individual's budget of money and time, can really do. He says something at one point about things that can be done, but he speaks of really big options. Take media conglomerates to the World Court? If I had that kind of budget and know-how, I wouldn't be reading this book, now would I? In giving us the detailed information on the flaws of society, we are having the gaps in our knowledge filled in, and that's handy. However, by telling us what's wrong and not what to do about it, it's as though we're being given bullets without a gun. This book is excellent if you're looking for a position piece, an explanation of what Lasn thinks and why, and of course that's always helpful. However, if you actually want to weigh in and suggest what somebody could do about it, you're woefully on your own. Here's hoping this is simply Volume One and more information will be coming later. However, it's been three years without a follow-up. It looks like us would-be revolutionaries are on our own from that side.
Rating: 
Summary: One Of The Worst Books I Have Ever Had the Misfortune To Rea
Review: Some books, such as Micheal Moore's change the way the reader thinks for a long time. Other books don't. Other books don't even make sense, are annoying, and direct readers into the opposite direction intended. This book is one of those. Advertising can be annoying, true. But this is so stupid. McDonalds makes people fat. They make food that isn't exactly natural. But they are not promising this. This author makes it sound like McDonalds is lying. IF YOUR STUPID ENOUGH TO GO AND EAT MCDONALDS ON A DIET MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T GO THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE...! He also says that some station is breaking free speech by not playing his ads. Just because he has the money, doesn't mean that they have to play it. What if it was the reverse? What if a station wanted to put ads in his book? If they had the money to do it, then he would be breaking the law. Anyone who disagrees with me I will gladly point out your error in intelligence. Email at cjhanrahan@comcast.net THIS BOOK SUCKS!
Rating: 
Summary: A book of problems with no solutions
Review: Ok, the guy, Kalle Lasn, is trying and I guess that is what is important right. I mean he founded Adbusters Media, which he shamelessly plugs every ten pages, something that of found very ironic since most of the book is about the ill effects of mass media. However my biggest grievance comes from the fact that Lasn never gives the reader any truly viable alternatives to the world we live in. Yes, he does have some interesting ways of irking the system, which I appreciate, but I am not an anarchists. I am problem solver and only have time for other problem solvers. While there are interesting points seeded throughout the book, he never elaborates on causing the book to comes off as more of rant than a well constructed argument. His only answer is to take away the power from the present media and replace it with his own personal beliefs. This book would have struck a nerve to me when I was 13 and the world was new, but those days are past and I need plausible solutions not lofty complaints. I'm serious in saying that this book is a cleverly packaged ... waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting thoughts, but...
Review: I found it a bit ironic to be reading these ideas on a wad of pricey newsprint produced by corporate publishers and sold through a corporate book chain. I went to adbusters.com. I didn't find the ideas from this book expressed on the web site ( though you can buy his products there). IMHO it is pretty tough to start a revoloution, especially one based on changing the flow of information when you don't make such ideas freely available. If the author means what he writes why isn't he on college campuses giving free lectures on this material and organizing campus groups? If the author really believes in the message of this book I challenge him to make it freely available in downloadable and printable form from his web site. Maybe this book is itself just another consumerist amusement.
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