Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Culture Jamming


While looking upon thousands and thousands of photographs and videos a particular picture shouted out to me. My favourite band being the Beatles, it is clear as to why this picture struck my attention. Hold on; no, wait. As I looked closer I realized that it was not John Lennon on the far left side of the picture. In fact, it was not any member of the Beatles. Substituting John Lennon was a suicide bomber.


This was extremely disturbing to see. For one thing, rarely have I ever seen what a suicide bomb or bomber look like and the feeling I got was very sad and frightening. It is very coincidental that the bomber’s arms are positioned almost exactly the same as the original album cover. Whoever created this photograph was very creative and intelligent. The fact that the title of the album is Help! is also quite clever. The title now appears as though the bomber is asking for help. An image like this edited onto any album cover would be one thing, but because the photo is pasted onto an album of the Beatles sends a much deeper message. The Beatles are a world renowned group, who even today (decades after their debut) are still as popular as ever. The Beatles are well-known for their outlooks on freedom, love, peace and genuine simplicity. We know them to be the kind of people that would stand up to suicide bombers and attempt to help countries in need.


I feel culture jamming is very effective. As generation who generally live in conformity with advertisements and the media, it is refreshing and eye-opening to see something different and witty. We enjoy being entertained dangerously. Though culture jams may often be offensive and disturbing, they always capture attention, and more often than not get our brains moving and thinking.

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