Adbusters has organized an people’s occupation of Wall Street that started just about three hours ago, in what is described as a “non violent revolution spreading across the globe”. The purpose of the Adbusters protest isn’t clear. The idea is to hold a protest first, and then figure out what it’s all about as the process unfolds.
Already, one thing is clear: The Adbusters Wall Street protest is not in opposition to corporate advertising. Adbusters appears to have been busted by advertising.
As our writer Jim noted yesterday, the Adbusters Global Revolution is being broadcast on Livestream. 6,379 people are now viewing the protest remotely, and the video shows something like three to four hundred people at the protest.
This picture of the Livestream shows a protester prepared for confrontation with the police – with the telephone number for the National Lawyers Guild written on his forearm. This snapshot also shows, however, that the Livestream video of the protest online is sponsored by Natural Instincts, a hair dye brand operated under Clairol, a line of products manufactured by the corporation Procter and Gamble. The advertisement for Natural Instincts hair dye shows across the bottom of the video of the protest set up by the anti-advertising organization Adbusters.
This protest may occupy Wall Street, but Wall Street also is occupying the protest. Procter & Gamble is a corporation traded on the Dow Jones market. The Procter & Gamble Co. stock’s value that market rose 2.47% on Friday, perhaps on news that the company would receive a major advertising through the Adbusters protest.
Perhaps this Adbusters protest is a demonstration of irony.
There’s also a 20 second car advertisement you have to watch hosted by a smary talking puppet if you want to watch the “Adbusters” protest. Cute touch.
Oh, for me it was a commercial for Toshiba laptop computers. Golly, but Adbusters has such a diverse advertising support crew!
You could say that the protest is using the apparatus of the corporate world to fight against the corporate world. I don’t know if that was their intention.
Are you saying that Adbusters has control of the airwaves? Isn’t the advertising placed there without their approval? Who is actually shooting the video?
i could see a bunch of people showing up to something and tv crews lining up from different broadcasters (abc or fox for example) to cover it independently and that THEY are the ones with the advertisers. i’m not sure how this works, but i can’t see Adbuster’s signing on to it. If it truly is the case, they’ll have more than a little “‘splainin’ to do” to their followers.
Tom, these aren’t airwaves we’re talking about. It’s online bandwidth, and yeah, for not much money they could have set up their own server, or rented space ad-free. Really, not much trouble.
More on why protests aren’t going anywhere here:
http://maxkeiser.com/2011/09/17/on-the-edge-with-danny-schechter/?
To demonstrate Schecter’s point (no coverage by media makes it a “non-event”):
from http://thestrongwatchman.com/news-underground/47-news-underground/853-sources-and-reports-for-day-of-rage-update-news-and-progress.html
TWITTER BLOCKING TRENDING FOR #OccupyWallStreet DEMONSTRATON FEED
There are several reports that Twitter is blocking trending for #OccupyWallSt and #TakeWallStreet.
“OccupyWallSt Occupy Wall St.
@maureendutton1 just the hashtag #OccupyWallStreet is being blocked from trending so it won’t get on the front page”
So it would appear that the #OccupyWallStreet is changing strategies to get around the blockage of Twitter.
“OccupyWallSt Occupy Wall St.
Remember the Internet (communication) is half of the battle these days so if you can’t be there spread everything you can. #Sep17″
OccupyWallSt Occupy Wall St.
#TakeWallStreet will fully develop by afternoon.
and lastly, lest i belabor the point, how many of us heard about or saw this:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/09/nurses-hold-actions-across-country-demanding-wall-street-transaction-tax.html
i didn’t see it making a big splash and nurses are from here, far larger and more organized (and have a POINT to their protest) than Adbuster’s followers (a Canadian run mag).
The captured government/oligarchy wins again.
It’s about time we stand up and not be victims of a corrupt wall street, and for that matter of our government and their childishness. What if we were G-d forbid hit by a nuclear bomb, would bi-partoniship be an issue then??????? We all know the solutions to our debt problem…….taxing those more that can afford it, forcing the gov’t to be accountable to the public on their spending, and capping just how much they can spend on WARS! IF we take care of our own problems, FIRST, then we will be putting the saying
First things first into action FINALLY!!!!!!!!! WRITE YOUR CONGRESSSMAN- enough is enough!
Kerin. I think you nailed it on the head. The only thing I would add is: stop wars all together unless our borders are threatened. $444b for a ten year war in the middle east is ridiculous. Imagine the good that money could have done in this country? ie: .poverty, hunger, foreclosures, education, etc.
If, in fact, P&G is helping to sponsor the “Occupy” message it would seem to indicate both the cynical nature of Corporations and just how gullible they perceive their consumers to be. Does P&G believe they have nothing to fear from this movement against greed? Will their “gamble” pay off?