Co-option (If You Can’t Beat ‘Em…)

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Improv Everywhere: No Pants Subway Ride 2010

by Charlie Todd
Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), Culture Jamming and Reality Hacking

From Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere:


nopants2010-200The 9th Annual No Pants Subway Ride went off without a hitch today in New York. It’s tough to count, but we’re guessing we had around 3,000 participants. Riders met at meeting points spread out all over the city and converged on Union Square. The high was 28 degrees. For more photos and videos as they are submitted, visit here.

Video from the Daily News:

Related links:

  • Thousands Participate in Annual ‘No Pants Subway Ride’, 1010WINS, January 10, 2009
  • Forget the chills, enjoy the thrills! It’s No Pants Day on NYC’s trains and subways, Daily News, January 10, 2009
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    How to Unmask Shadowy Grassroots Groups

    by Joey Skaggs, Editor
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), Hype, Propaganda and Disinformation, Spin

    Editor’s Note: The manipulative, deceitful and very effective tactics I have used over the past 40+ years as an artist, activist and culture jammer to shed light on institutional, corporate and media efforts to mislead the general public have now been fully co-opted by the organizations victimized by them. It’s interesting to see the pendulum swing. Kudos to Ann Landman for this insightful and very useful article aimed at unmasking corporate and political tricksterism that blatantly utilizes disinformation to sway public opinion. One hopes the general public becomes more aware and is willing to fight against this insidious hype, hypocrisy, propaganda, and disinformation. JS


    Attack of the Living Front Groups: PR Watch Offers Help to Unmask Corporate Tricksters
    by Anne Landman
    PRWatch.org / Center for Media and Democracy
    August 28, 2009

    zombies2-200Fake “grassroots” groups have started springing up like toadstools after a rain, and this time they’re coming at us from every angle: they’re on TV, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube: “Americans for Prosperity,” “FACES of Coal, “The “Coalition to Protect Patients’ Rights,” “Americans Against Food Taxes,” the “60 Plus Association,” “Citizens for Better Medicare,” “Patients First” … It’s making our heads spin! Issues affecting some of the country’s biggest industries, like health insurance reform, a proposal to tax sodas and sugary drinks, and the FDA’s possible reconsideration of the plastic additive Bisphenol A, have boosted corporate astroturfing up to a dizzying pace. With all these corporate fronts coming out of the woodwork, how can citizens tell true grassroots organizations from corporate fronts operated by highly-paid PR and lobbying firms? Here are some tips to help readers spot this kind of big-business hanky-panky.

    What is a “front group,” really? (more…)

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    Facebook Boob Prank [English & Italian]

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), Publicity Stunts

    Submitted by Stefano Cicconardi about the story of Valeria and Antonio and his betrayal of her on Facebook:


    The Italian Boobs are Fake!

    facebookmain-425

    The story about Valeria, the furious Italian fiancee who cancelled her wedding after discovering her future bridegroom Antonio’s betrayal on Facebook, made lots of buzz in the Italian and international press. Out of revenge, she stuck up hundreds of posters around Rome with sexy snaps taken from Antonio’s Facebook profile that show him nestling his head between a girl’s naked breasts.

    The betrayal, reported by many international newspapers and websites (The Sun, Metro, 20minutes, Fox 10 etc.) was actually a marketing operation planned and executed by Stefano Cicconardi and Marco Diotallevi to launch the movie Feisbum (English title: Faceboom). In fact, Valeria’s story is part of one episode of Feisbum (Maledetto tag), a comedy about love online, including fear, revenge and Italy’s most popular social network. (more…)

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    Astroturfing the Spinternet

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), Political Challenges, Propaganda and Disinformation, Spin

    Propaganda.com
    by Evgeny Morozov
    The New York Times Op Ed
    March 29, 2009

    censorship-200This year’s report on “enemies of the Internet” prepared by Reporters Without Borders, the international press advocacy group, paints a very gloomy picture for the freedom of expression on the Web. It finds that many governments have stepped up their attacks on the Internet, harassing bloggers and making it harder to express dissenting opinions online.

    These are very disturbing trends. But identifying “Internet enemies” only on the basis of censorship and intimidation, as Reporters Without Borders has done, obfuscates the fact that these are only two components of a more comprehensive and multi-pronged approach that authoritarian governments have developed to diffuse the subversive potential of online communications.

    Many of these governments have honed their Internet strategies beyond censorship and are employing more subtle (and harder to detect) ways of controlling dissent, often by planting their own messages on the Web and presenting them as independent opinion.

    Their actions are often informed by the art of online “astroturfing,” a technique also popular with modern corporations and PR firms. While companies use it to engineer buzz around products and events, governments are using it to create the appearance of broad popular support for their ideology.

    Their ultimate ambition may be to transform the Internet into a “spinternet,” the vast and mostly anonymous areas of cyberspace under indirect government jurisdiction. The spinternet strategy could be more effective than censorship — while there are a plenty of ways to access blocked Web sites, we do not yet have the means to distinguish spin from independent comment. (more…)

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    Flash Mob Commercial

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...)

    The T-Mobile Dance

    Now check out the Making of the T-Mobile Dance here:

    thanks Linda

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    SantaCon Co-opted

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...)

    From Laughing Squid, posted by Scott Beale:

    Santacon Used As Theme For New Motorola TV Commercial

    First Bacardi ripped-off The Cacophony Society’s Breakers to Bay Salmon Run, then Absolut Vodka co-opted the Pillow Fight and now the latest underground event used as the theme of a television commercial is Santacon (Santarchy) with Motorola’s new “Santa Swarm” ad for their bluetooth headsets.

    The ad was produced for Motorola by creative agency DraftFCB working with the production company Harold Group. It was directed by Jamin Winans who made the really cool short film “Spin” that I posted about last year. Thanks to Spacemonkey for the tip!

    Ho, Ho, Ho — Chicago Sheriff Cons the Cons

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), Fraud and Deception

    Chicago sheriff baits fugitives with holiday ruse
    1010WINS
    December 21, 2008

    Chicago (AP) — The sheriff’s office in Chicago has arrested more than 60 fugitives with a net of holiday cheer. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said Sunday that the suspects were invited to take a retailers’ survey for holiday shoppers at a hotel earlier this month.

    Participants who brought along a scratch-off card that was included with the survey were promised at least $500.

    Those who showed up were taken into custody. One man who arrived with marijuana in his pocket was charged with possession on top of his previous charges.

    The fugitives had warrants for crimes including forgery and aggravated battery.

    image: Michigan.gov

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    Alternative Ads: Pranking Goes Commercial

    by Joey Skaggs, Editor
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), Media Literacy, The Future of Pranks

    Advertisers are trying harder and harder to trick consumers with ads that mimic the work of pranksters, street artists and media activists. Going viral with your ad has become the brass ring, with customers doing all the heavy lifting (i.e., distributing these ad campaigns through YouTube, blogs and emails) for free for the advertisers.

    It’s challenging to tell the difference between true guerrilla theater and this new trend of veritĂ© advertising. Here’s a hint: listen to the audio quality and watch for camera angles. Frequently, the main character who’s supposed to be the unsuspecting target of a joke is wearing a hidden microphone and there are at least three distinct camera angles, meaning it’s an expensive multi-camera shoot. If it sounds and looks too good to be true — it probably is.

    Check out this article On Advertising: Alternative advertising to grab your attention, by Stephanie Clifford of the International Herald Tribune, August 3, 2008.

    And, this viral commercial video submitted by Andrew Boyd yesterday:

    Hidden Camera Penny Prank in Jewelry Store

    This one, picked up from V. Vale’s RE/Search Newsletter, is just a regular German commercial, but fun (and viral) because of its shock value. (more…)

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    Verizon’s Fake Flash Mob Viral Ad

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), Publicity Stunts

    Submitted by Dolph Starbeam, who says:

    It looks like Verizon Wireless is getting into the viral video game. They recently did a flash mob in some park in Atlanta. It’s actually well executed and pretty funny.

    Verizon Wireless Surprises Customer

    The Verizon “can you hear me guy” and network show up and follow someone around, just like on TV. He and everyone else in the park were [supposedly] taken by surprise.

    [Editor's note: Exactly how was the unsuspecting cell phone user (who was followed by the entire Verizon "Network" through a city park) mic'd so that his voice is heard so clearly?]

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    Pranks as Tools for Propaganda

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), The History of Pranks, Why Do a Prank?

    From New Right Australia / New Zealand Web site:

    The New Right is organised throughout Europe and beyond. We are strongly opposed to liberalism, democracy and egalitarianism and fight to restore the eternal values and principles that have become submerged beneath the corrosive tsunami of the modern world. The New Right has an interest in the various strands of thought connected with the Traditionalists, the Revolutionary Conservatives; the Nouvelle Droit; and the Eurasianists.


    fatbastarddiscovershisblogi-200.jpgHumour as a Weapon
    by Andreas Gaust
    New Right Australia / New Zealand
    May 8, 2008

    This article has been researched and compiled for the purposes of educating New Right and N-A activists in the use of humour as a political weapon. There is a paranoid feeling amongst many on the New Right that the mass media is our greatest enemy. Not so. This article looks at the ways in which activists can use and manipulate the media, rather than the other way around.

    As an example: mention the 1932 opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to any older Australian, and the first image that will spring to their mind is a man on horseback, galloping forward to slash the ribbon with his sword, before the â€official’ representative could get to it. The swordsman was a member of a political group called the New Guard. And while this stunt was not especially humorous, it was certainly eye-catching – it remains in the mass mind to this day. In that same city in 2007, the crew of television show The Chaser made world headlines when they infiltrated the APEC forum (one of them dressed as Osama bin Laden), making a complete mockery of the forum’s expensive security measures.

    In general, the media doesn’t give coverage to alternative politics (the recent 9/11 Truth Forum in Sydney was completely ignored, even though one of the speakers was a prominent Japanese MP). But â€fringe’ views can get past the editors if they are presented by means of some humorous prank or stunt. (more…)

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    Checkbook Culture Jamming

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), Prank Busters

    Update to our March 28, 2008 post “Skullphone to Clear Channel: Can You Hear Me Now?” From Wired.com, via The Anti-Advertising Agency:

    Clear Channel: Digital Billboards Rented, Not Hacked

    Photo: Mike Fischer

    The Los Angeles street artist known as Skullphone managed to get his iconic skull-holding-a-cellphone image to display on 10 prominent digital billboards throughout Los Angeles last week — leading some blogs to report that he’d hacked into the signs.

    Alas, Clear Channel Outdoors, which owns the billboards, says no. “He paid to get it up,” says spokeswoman Jennifer Gery. “It only ran for two days.”

    Update: Clear Channel’s Tony Alwin is unhappy about the hacking rumors. “The advertisement was bought under the assumption that it was art that was in an art show,” he says. “Any claims about hacking into our systems is false. It’s a lie, even.”

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    Obay

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), Publicity Stunts

    From Alma’s Soulfood blog… Culture jamming goes mainstream:

    obay_1-425.jpg

    Mysterious ads for a product called “Obay” have been plastered all over Toronto for the last couple of weeks. Everyone has been guessing what they could be about — a culture jamming ad that critiques the overmedication of youth? Ads for some kind of self-help system? Or just a joke?

    Their point was revealed this week (you can read about it here and here). I wasn’t too surprised to find out that they were done by Smith Roberts + Co., the same advertising firm we are working with on the United Church of Canada’s WonderCafe campaign. I knew there was something familiar about this twisted approach to marketing!

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    Guerilla Marketing: DK New Yuck

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), Publicity Stunts

    DKNY Guerilla Marketing Goes from Poor Taste to Trash, by John Del Signore at Gothamist:

    DKNY Publicity Stunt

    Curious about the fate of all those orange bikes with the DKNY website that were locked up around town? The ones the police didn’t cart away (some were illegally chained to trees) are being picked clean for spare parts. The tone deaf Fashion Week publicity stunt was presented by DKNY as an effort to promote cycling in New York, and the company did help raise awareness by, uh, distributing bicycle maps in their stores. Oh, and their website for the campaign has a photo of models riding a bike, though they’re too cool for helmets, of course.

    The neon orange DKNY bikes drew heat from cyclists because the aesthetic is all-too-similar to the nationwide “Ghost Bike” campaign, which memorializes killed cyclists by locking an all-white bicycle near the scene of the accident. In an email sent out earlier, a DKNY rep wrote “we are very sorry if our well-intentioned â€Explore Your City’ program offended anyone.” That’s touching, but ‘sorry’ doesn’t get these eyesores off the sidewalks.

    DKNY has not responded to our questions about when the bikes will be removed, but it seems others are doing the job one piece at a time.

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    Unmarketable, by Anne Elizabeth Moore

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), Media Literacy

    From The New Press Web site:

    Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity by Anne Elizabeth Moore

    Unmarketable, by Anne Elizabeth Moore

    For years the do-it-yourself (DIY)/punk underground has worked against the logic of mass production and creative uniformity, disseminating radical ideas and directly making and trading goods and services. But what happens when the underground becomes just another market? What happens when the very tools that the artists and activists have used to build word of mouth are coopted by corporate America? What happens to cultural resistance when it becomes just another marketing platform?

    Unmarketable examines the corrosive effects of corporate infiltration of the underground. Activist and author Anne Elizabeth Moore takes a critical look at the savvy advertising agencies, corporate marketing teams, and branding experts who use DIY techniques to reach a youth market—and at members of the underground who have helped forward corporate agendas through their own artistic, and occasionally activist, projects.

    Covering everything from Adbusters to Tylenol’s indie-star-studded Ouch! campaign, Unmarketable is a lively, funny, and much-needed look at what’s happening to the underground and what it means for activism, commerce, and integrity in a world dominated by corporations.

    Anne Elizabeth Moore is the co-editor of Punk Planet, the Best American Comics series editor, and the author of Hey, Kidz! Buy This Book: A Radical Primer on Corporate and Governmental Propaganda and Artistic Activism for Short People. She has written for Bitch, the Chicago Reader, In These Times, The Onion, The Progressive, and Chicago Public Radio WBEZ’s radio program 848. She lives in Chicago.


    To get more of a sense of what this book is about, check out Rob Walker’s very interesting interview with Anne Elizabeth Moore from his blog Murketing.

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    Singapore’s Hip Hop Co-option

    posted by Moderator
    Filed under: Co-option (If You Can't Beat 'Em...), Truth that's Stranger than Fiction

    Singapore’s Media Development Authority is a governmental agency created to plan and promote the growth of media in the city-island-nation. Check out their MDA Senior Management Rap:

    via Neatorama, from Sadly, No! Things that should never be

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