Culture Jamming

Around this time last year there was an advertising campaign for a product called Obay. These ads were plastered around Toronto on bus shelters, street cars and even inside the subway cars.

The product itself was a pill, and the ads displayed testimonials from parents who have claimed to give their child this pill.

“When Amy started thinking for herself, we had to nip it in the bud with Obay.”

There were several versions of this ad, all displaying scenarios where children tried to make their own decisions or speak out, and their parents quickly and easily resolved this ‘incident’ with Obay.

Come to think about it, this is an example about Culture Jamming a Culture Jam.

At a first glance, these ads seemed ridiculous; truthfully when I saw them I had no idea if they were real or fake. But after seeing so many of them, I soon realized how these advertisements were being used to satire the concept of using media to satirize what it was supposed to originally represent.

If that makes sense.

But it is a smart idea, and thinking back on it, it is kinda funny how I did not know the truthfulness behind the ad, and that in my head it is not too far fetched to come up with a drugs for children who don’t listen to their parents.

That’s the idea though. It isn’t unusual…

They use drugs for everything now,

Hello!? ADD!? What kind of a made up disorder is that.

Unfortunately once the ads revealed themselves to be fake, I bet there were actually some parents out there disappointed that their dream product only existed in their dreams.