Jan 5, 2008
Duncan and Terri talk to Anne Elizabeth Moore about her book Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity and related topics.
For years the do-it-yourself (DIY)/punk underground has worked against the logic of mass production and creative uniformity, disseminating radical ideas and directly making and trading goods and services. But what happens when the underground becomes just another market? What happens when the very tools that the artists and activists have used to build word of mouth are coopted by corporate America? What happens to cultural resistance when it becomes just another marketing platform?
Unmarketable examines the corrosive effects of corporate infiltration of the underground. Activist and author Anne Elizabeth Moore takes a critical look at the savvy advertising agencies, corporate marketing teams, and branding experts who use DIY techniques to reach a youth market—and at members of the underground who have helped forward corporate agendas through their own artistic, and occasionally activist, projects.
Covering everything from
Adbusters to Tylenol’s indie-star-studded Ouch! campaign,
Unmarketable is a lively, funny, and much-needed look at
what’s happening to the underground and what it means for activism,
commerce, and integrity in a world dominated by corporations.
Anne Elizabeth Moore is the co-editor of Punk
Planet, the Best American Comics series editor, and
the author of Hey Kidz! Buy This Book: A Radical Primer on
Corporate and Governmental Propaganda and Artistic
Activism for Short People. She has written for Bitch,
the Chicago Reader, In These Times, The
Onion, The Progressive, and Chicago Public Radio
WBEZ’s radio program 848. She lives in Chicago.
I will mail 5 bucks to the first person who can identify the name of the artist and title of the song used to close the show, it has bothered me for years that I don’t know who it is.