Advertising Shits in Your Head calls adverts what they are—a powerful means of control through manipulation—and highlights how people across the world are fighting back. It diagnoses the problem and offers practical tips for a DIY remedy. Faced with an ad-saturated world, activists are fighting back, equipped with stencils, printers, high-visibility vests, and utility tools. Their aim is to subvert the adverts that control us. With case studies from both sides of the Atlantic, this book showcases the ways in which small groups of activists are taking on corporations and states at their own game: propaganda. This international edition includes an illustrated introduction from Josh MacPhee, case studies and interviews with Art in Ad Places, Public Ad Campaign, Resistance Is Female; Brandalism, and Special Patrol Group, plus photography from Luna Park and Jordan Seiler. This is a call-to-arts for a generation raised on adverts. Beginning with a rich and detailed …
Advertising Shits in Your Head calls adverts what they are—a powerful means of control through manipulation—and highlights how people across the world are fighting back. It diagnoses the problem and offers practical tips for a DIY remedy. Faced with an ad-saturated world, activists are fighting back, equipped with stencils, printers, high-visibility vests, and utility tools. Their aim is to subvert the adverts that control us. With case studies from both sides of the Atlantic, this book showcases the ways in which small groups of activists are taking on corporations and states at their own game: propaganda. This international edition includes an illustrated introduction from Josh MacPhee, case studies and interviews with Art in Ad Places, Public Ad Campaign, Resistance Is Female; Brandalism, and Special Patrol Group, plus photography from Luna Park and Jordan Seiler. This is a call-to-arts for a generation raised on adverts. Beginning with a rich and detailed analysis of the pernicious hold advertising has on our lives, the book then moves on to offer practical solutions and guidance on how to subvert the ads. Using a combination of ethnographic research and theoretical analysis, Advertising Shits in Your Head investigates the claims made by subvertising practitioners and shows how they impact their practice.
This book is frustrating, and it really was in need of an editor. Not only because there are occasional mistakes that make sentences absolutely infuriating to read but because an editor would've stopped and been like "You talked about this, can we please elaborate? Perhaps it might make a stronger case."
The introduction was inciting, and it really set the tone. It's unfortunate that the rest of it fell flat and felt largely vague. It also missed key moments to actually go into depth on some of the issues related to subvertising, like a more cohesive discussion on the co-option of street art (namely Banksy, as that was an example).
