Rating: 
Summary: More Potent Than Crack
Review: America is no longer a country. It is a multitrillion-dollar name brand -- brand AmericaTM. And you? You have been branded too. Make no mistake, you are a marked wo/man. "A free, authentic life is no longer possible in America today. We are being manipulated in the most insidious way." Strong statments. You don't believe Lasn? Read this book. Quite possibly the best analysis and critique of modern corporate consumer culture out there. Lasn lays bare the American (and growingly international) media, and enumerates its manifold effects on the human psyche. As you might have suspected, the prognosis is not good, but Lasn is not about to fall prey to cynicism. You find hundreds of interesting ideas and suggestions about how to tackle the corporate juggernaut. Reading this book is like dunking your head in a bucket of ice-cold water, and being thrown back into the ring again to fight that large, robotronic megamachine that wants to tatoo a barcode on your noggin. If nothing else, this book will definitely give you pause. Wherever you are, whatever your are doing, this book will serve as what the Situationists called a detournement -- or a perspective-jarring turnabout in your everyday life. Like a strong cup of Joe, it will rouse you from consumer-culture hangover. Good news is, waking up to Lasn's perspective is exhilarating and refreshing. You won't be able to put the book down. Unlike TV, it will actually fill you with delicious goodness that you can use. A Sample from the book: "A corporation has no heart, no soul, no morals. It cannot feel pain. You cannot argue with it. That's because a corporation is not a living thing, but a process-and efficient way of generating revenue. It takes energy from outside (capital, labor, raw materials) and transforms it in various ways. In order to continue "living" it needs to meet only one condition: It's income must equal its expenditures over the long term. As long as it does that, it can exist indefinitely. "When a corporation hurts or damages the environment, it will feel no sorrow or remorse because it is intrinsically unable to do so. (It may sometimes apologize, but that's not remorse-that's public relations.)"
Rating: 
Summary: Energizing
Review: Corporations. You see them everywhere these days. Their name is on everything. Just when you think society has become about as saturated with corporate logos and products as it possibly can, corporations bound pass a barrier you never thought they would possibly cross in order to get you, the citizen-consumer, to buy their product. I've always known this, and I've thought about it quite a bit. I have no fondness for corporations, and have always valued the variety of small businesses and restaurants over the shoddy, mass-produced and mass-marketed tripe that corporations are all-too-eager to sell us. I've known this, and yet I've not cared. What could I do? I have my own plot to tend, and me picketing [stores] is not going to solve the world's problems. Take this attitude and mix in one dose of Kalle Lasn's book. He is apparently an energetic fellow, or at least he has an energetic approach to this topic, because his book reads like a slap in the face. Obviously this is rhetoric, but his facts are hard to deny. As I said, I knew a lot of this stuff already, but Lasn's rhetoric and delivery put a lot of things into perspective for me. So, should you read this book? (I assume that's why you're reading this.) Well, it depends. If you're already staunchly anti-corporate, I'd say you don't need to, unless you're just feeling like an ego boost (which can be rewarding). If you're undecided or even pro-corporate, I'd say you should definitely read this book. In fact, you NEED to read this book. Even if you walk in and out of the experience disagreeing with everything he says, you owe it to yourself to realistically examine the issue. Why? Because if what he's saying is true (and he has some damn good facts on his side), then corporate America is one of the biggest threats to our democracy since the Redcoats. Two things: One: Why post this review on a corporation's Web site? Well, why not? A lot of people read this, and if they'll host it, I'll post it. In addition, this is a good Web site. ...
Rating: 
Summary: thin on originality, heavy on self-important nonsense
Review: I am a subscriber to Adbusters magazine and a frequent visitor to their website - both of which were founded, in part, by Kalle Lasn. I agree with the majority of his opinions. I believe he speaks the truth. I suppose if I were a mainstream, middle-class, middle-American, I would be excited and surprised by what I found in this book.
However, I am not, and so I wasn't. I don't find it all that revolutionary. It's pseudo-fiery mental masturbation. It's a big, bound ego stroke for Lasn, who seems to think that repeating the same sentences in every other chapter is an inspiring literary technique (instead of a sign of lack of originality and talent).
It's all stuff that those of us paying attention already knew.
Worse, he systematically and roundly dismisses and alienates large groups of people. WIth little more than a figurative wave of the hand, he smacks down Lefties, feminists ("a special interest victim group vying for a piece of the money and the action"), academics, and fighters for racial equality.
He also takes a ridiculous swipe at Generation X, spouting the decade-old media stereotypes of "slackers", "apathetic", "sardonic", "lazy", "ironic", and "the biggest waste of potential energy, passion, creativity, and intellect in our time".
I tried to look through this willful blindness and profane, thoughtless stereotypes. I tried to see past that stuff to take some meaning from this book, but I couldn't. I have no interest in a movement that dismisses me - on three or four counts - based on inane propaganda and his fond remembrances of "the golden days of the '60s and '70s".
Lasn is shortsighted, woefully lacking in varied thought, smug, superior, blind in many ways, lazily generalizing, and excluding. His book is offensive, self-important, shallow, and achingly holier-than-thou. There are many better resources than this waste of wood pulp.
Rating:
Summary: Turn off your TV and live
Review: The fact that the idea of turning off your TV for a week causes some people geniune emotional distress speaks toward the validity of this book's stance of TV viewing as the #1 American mental problem. A little heavy on quoting other books, it's an otherwise excellent, concise read that everyone could benefit from... if just to question your position within the corporate-consumer-citizen heirarchy. Thanks to the author for an exellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I had been familiar with the adbusters campaign prior to reading this book so i had some expectations, and it certainly delivered. The book is very insightful as well as entertaining and funny which makes it a fun read as well. It made me look at many things in a whole new life and actually rethink the direction of what i really wanted to do in life(the bit about the situationists). So i highly suggest that everyone reads this book, imagine how different things would be if everyone did?
Rating:
Summary: Poetic consumer anger - but with few solutions...
Review: I was open to the anti-consumer message of this book before I turned the first page. 'Culture Jam' beautifully captures all the fear/confusion/frustration & anger that has grown in me over the years. It's hard not to notice that fewer & fewer artists/bands get any radio play at all, while a handful of artists get played 5 times in one hour, or how 24-hour News networks promote artists, ideas & movies created by the same parent company. (When they're not promoting an alarmingly slanted political philosophy...) "Gated communities", company named ballparks - Enron Field, anybody? -, presidents & senators with a family Brand name, this book suggests America is far closer to a Brand Idea than most of us would like... That's the soapbox author Kalle Lasn's 'Culture Jam' preaches on. And it's a powerful soapbox - even the B&W photos leave lasting impressions. It's a provocative work, describing every detail of where consumerism runs amok. 'Culture Jam' is a deeply depressing eye-opener. With a conviction that may make readers jump. The problem I have with this intense book is the same problem I have with Kalle Lasn's 'AdBusters' counterculture magazine. This book captures all the wrongs and civic damage & frustration. But where are the solutions? As poetic & hip as this book is, the best it can offer is a 'Buy Nothing Day' or Turn-The-TV-Off-Year. These solutions seem at best temporary self-righteousness. At worst, hopeless. Even if you are tuned to Lasn's message, you may leave this book frustrated and depressed. Now that Lasn has explained the problem, I'm waiting for the sequel. Because without hope or solution, TV is as good an answer as any else...
Rating:
Summary: Liberate yourself!
Review: Ever catch yourself humming one of those obnoxious advertising jingles that marketeers love to pollute the airwaves with? Ever wonder what the roads would look like without billboards every 50 feet? Or what your kids' schools would be like without fast-food sponsored contests? Or how your own life would be better if you could somehow escape a consumerist society? Well, guess what? You can't escape it. BUT--you can start to undermine it. You can throw monkey wrenches into the great cultural machine that stall and maybe even jam it. This book is a primer on how to do just that. With it as a guide, plus a little imaginative legwork on your part, you can liberate yourself from a culture bent on transforming you into a placid, passive, commodity addict. All you have to lose is your logo!
Rating:
Summary: Very good, but wondering at times
Review: After reading Culture Jam, I have to admit that I was not changed, only because, as it turns out, I already agreed with Lasn on many points. However, what he does form here are both moral and medical reasons to be alarmed at the ever increasingly comercialism we can see in most modern cultures. That being said, the book is not as precise as it could have been, wondering at times and seemingly not totally sure what each chapter is ment to be about. In short though, an interesting book that deserves to be read.
Rating:
Summary: A great start...
Review: I found this book eye opening from a naive viewpoint. The author does a great job at painting the picture of corporate superpowers decaying our society, however offers little insight at a viable solution other than returning to the days of the stone age. The points that are made are exceptional ones, and the problems he describes are very real, which is why I rated this book so highly. It is a great start, but needs some work.
Rating:
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: While I respect what Lasn is trying to do, I was sorely disappointed by the thinness of the content here. Truly, I didn't learn anything from this book and can't say that I encountered an original idea on any page. It has been all said before by the Situationists and other theorists of culture and media, and Lasn seems to think that adding a shrill tone equals urgency. This is not to say that everything he says is wrong. I just think that he sucks the air out of compelling and important ideas with his puritanical, humorless, rambling prose. My recommendation is to go elsewhere for your media/cultural critique. At its worst this begins to drift into that Jebidiah Purdy anti-cynicism territory that won't change a thing except your mood and digestive acid level. Maybe that's what you're after, to feel bad about your spending habits and inferior to Lasn, who constantly reminds us how deluded we all are. Myself, I want a read that inspires me to new, more effective revolutionary acts. This ain't it.
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