Projects tagged "Advertising & Consumerism"

7 Days of Garbage
Practitioner:
Gregg Segal
Date:
Jul 10 2014
Gregg Segal -- a California-based artist who is known for using the medium of photography to explore culture with the "sensibility of a sociologist" -- asked family, friends, neighbors and other acquaintances to save their trash and recyclables for a week and then lie down and be photographed in it:
We Do Care
Practitioner:
Allthosewalls
Date:
Dec 3 2016
‘MADE IN BANGLADESH’: NEWYORKERS RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT WORKER EXPLOITATION IN FASHION INDUSTRY New York City – Models are marching along the biggest shops in Fifth Avenue, wearing faux bloodied shirts with statements 'Made in Bangladesh’, ‘Support Cheap Labor.’ Myths about ethical consumption: ineffective, expensive and subordinate
H&M Ad-busting
Practitioner:
Daniel Soares
Date:
Jan 1 2014
Artist Daniel Soares pasted Photoshop toolbar stickers on these H&M posters as a nice little reminder that not all is as it seems. Y'all know how Photoshop messes with our perception of beauty, and I think this is a smart little stunt to snap us back into reality when we start to wonder why we never look like the girls on the posters we walk past every day.
Hansel and Gretel (Have Guns)
Practitioner:
National Rifle Association
Date:
Mar 28 2016
The N.R.A. Reimagines Classic Fairy Tales, With Guns. The world of make-believe can be a scary place, but never fear: Thanks to a series of reimagined fairy tales published online by the National Rifle Association, classic characters like Hansel and Gretel are now packing heat.
Soviet Army Monument - REDUX
Practitioner:
various activists
Date:
Feb 23 2014
Since the beginning of Bulgaria's transition to democracy, the monument’s meaning and future has been the subject of heated debates. Opponents to the monument aren’t happy about the presence of such a dominating foreign army monument in the country that is situated higher and more central than national symbols. In recent years, the monument has turned into a canvas for anonymous political statements on multiple occasions.
The Last Billboard
Practitioner:
Jon Rubin
Date:
Jan 1 2013
The Last Billboard is a 36-foot art installation located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Created in 2013, it features a steel frame and removable wooden letters that must be arranged by hand. Each month a different artist, activist or individual is invited by creator and curator, Jon Rubin, to come and utilize the billboard space. The participants share messages over this medium in the form of thoughtful questions, esoteric musings, or other visual means.
Corporations Ain't People
Practitioner:
Backbone Campaign
Date:
Sep 14 2010
Corporations Ain’t People: A Musical Protest 
SWORN OATH
Practitioner:
Patrick Henderson
Date:
Apr 25 2018
Fuck. Damn. Shit. Ass. Everybody curses. Don’t say you don’t. Everyone does it when they’re mad, upset, happy, or excited. It’s human nature. Is it that the words are sinful? Offensive? Violent? Nobody really knows but we as a society do not like them in the slightest. People associate cursing with a stigma of being uneducated, uncultured, and lazy. But boiled down, language is one of the strongest tools and assets that we have. Language is power.
"Graffittied Graffiti"
Practitioner:
Professional Muralist and observers turned participants
Date:
Feb 1 2021
At a gallery within a shopping complex in the South Korean capital, a couple saw paint cans and brushes at their reach and use next to what was actually a finished portrait worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thinking the available paint and brushes was a signal to be a part of the art, they ended up technically vandalizing the artists' work.
One Dress Protest
Practitioner:
Kristy Powell
Date:
Jan 3 2011
Independent blogger, Kristy Powell, decided to begin a digital action, beginning on January 3rd, 2011 and ending on January 3rd, 2012, where she would wear one dress for an entire year to call attention to the politics of fashion's dominance over our quotidian lives and relationships with our own bodies.
A Legal Guide Helps Artists Make and Protect Protest Art
Practitioner:
Harvard University’s Cyberlaw Clinic and metaLAB
Date:
Jan 22 2018
Harvard University’s Cyberlaw Clinic and metaLAB have created a free guide for making protest art while navigating intellectual property law.
German Supermarket Removes All Foreign Products For A Day
Practitioner:
Edeka Supermarket
Date:
Aug 19 2017
"A German Supermarket Removed All Foreign Products for a Day to Make a Point About Diversity"
Sirens of the Lambs
Practitioner:
Banksy
Date:
Oct 10 2013
Sirens of the Lambs is created by the enigmatic street artist, Banksy. This piece was first spotted on the streets of New York City on October 10, 2013, it went viral on social media and people are posting and reposting about it. Sirens of the Lambs is a truck full of stuffed animals – plush cows, chickens, pigs, lambs, bears – that first appeared in the Meatpacking neighborhood of NYC.
Mind Over Media
Practitioner:
Media Education Lab
Date:
Nov 1 2017
Mind Over Media is a crowdsourced educational platform that contains diverse examples of contemporary propaganda on a wide range of social, political, economic and environmental topics.
Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir
Practitioner:
Reverend Billy
Date:
May 25 1950
Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir is a New York City based radical performance community, with 50 performing members and a congregation in the thousands. We are wild anti-consumerist gospel shouters and Earth loving urban activists who have worked with communities on four continents defending community, life and imagination. Our Devils over the 15 years of our "church" have remained the same: Consumerism and Militarism.
Poor Little Fish
Practitioner:
Yan Lu
Date:
Apr 4 2012
Is it possible that through affective design we can change our consumer behavior? Yan Lu and his "Little Fish Project" offer a design inspired solution to excess use of water. "As consumption is incalculable, saving is often neglected through daily consumption.
Reframing Trash Into Art
Practitioner:
Vik Muniz
Date:
Sep 15 2008
In 2008, my work as an artist took me to a gigantic landfill outside Rio de Janeiro called Jardim Gramacho. After operating for more than 30 years, the sanitary facility, once one of the largest in the world, had reached its maximum capacity and was on the eve of closing permanently.
Mesmerizing Flesh: The Visceral Corporeality of Tamara Kostianovsky's Textile Sculptures
Practitioner:
Tamara Kostianovsky
Date:
Feb 3 2023
For artists exploring themes of violence towards humans and animals, there is a fine line between thoughtfully engaging and needlessly shocking the viewer; being sensationally explicit can turn people away while being tacit or innocuous may fail to make an impact.
Benetton 'Unhate' Campaign Ads: White House Issues Statement on Obama Kiss
Practitioner:
United Colors of Benetton
Date:
Nov 17 2011
It seems a lot of powerful people hate Benetton's new 'Unhate' Campaign ads. The recently unveiled images show world leaders like the Pope and U.S. President Barack Obama kissing their perceived enemies. On Thursday, the White House issued a statement condemning Benetton for its provocative campaign.
Dismaland
Practitioner:
Banksy
Date:
Aug 20 2015
“He describes it as a “family theme park unsuitable for small children” – and with the Grim Reaper whooping it up on the dodgems and Cinderella horribly mangled in a pumpkin carriage crash, it is easy to see why. Banksy’s new show, Dismaland, which opened on Thursday on the Weston-super-Mare seafront, is sometimes hilarious, sometimes eye-opening and occasionally breathtakingly shocking.
Creative Activism in the Service of Corporations
Practitioner:
McDonalds
Date:
Dec 7 2012
McDonald’s wanted children in Hong Kong to spend more time with their imagination after a study showed that children spend an average of 5 hours studying per day. In its new ‘I’m Amazing’ campaign, the fast food chain challenges these children to draw and create their ideal McDonald’s environment.
Joe Chemo
Practitioner:
Scott Plous via Adbusters
Date:
Jan 1 1996
From http://www.joechemo.org/about.htm
Real Life Barbie
Practitioner:
Nickolay Lamm
Date:
Jul 4 2013
We have learnt that Barbie’s body is literally unattainable, but in a role reversal, Pennsylvania-based artist Nikolay Lamm shows us what Barbie would look like if she had the body of a real woman. Using the measurements of an average 19-year-old woman, Lamm created a 3D model, which he photographed and compared next to a standard Barbie doll. According to the Daily Mail, it reported that Lamm’s 3D model looked “a lot more natural”.
At War With São Paulo’s Establishment, Black Paint in Hand
Practitioner:
pichação
Date:
Jan 1 2012
New York Times January 28, 2012 By SIMON ROMERO SÃO PAULO, Brazil — This mega-city’s authorities have waged war for years against what they call “visual pollution,” banning billboard advertising, demolishing abandoned skyscrapers and planning to raze concrete eyesores like the elevated highway known as the Big Worm.
Sao Paulo goes completely ad-free with Clean City Law
Practitioner:
Mayor Gilberto Kassab
Date:
Sep 1 2006
Mayor Gilberto Kassab passed a Clean City Law that banned all public advertising in Sao Paulo, one of the world's most populous cities. The mayor gained the support of the city's elites in pressing the law as an anti-pollution measure targeting "visual pollution". The city was quickly stripped of its ubiquitous billboards, signs, graffiti and other public ads.

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