Final Project Proposal - Team "Team"

CCT300 Group Proposal
Team “Team”

Problem Description:

The problem our group will be investigating is a broad one – the mass media spreads popular culture, and through this we learn norms and values. Through media coverage we learn (or rather are told) what is important and what is not. Advertising tells us we are not happy until we consume these products, and we spend money trying to achieve this impossible ideal. This problem is of interest to us as CCIT students, because in our studies we thoroughly examine visual culture and communications all over the world (and especially in Western culture). This should be interesting to others because it is something that affects everybody, and how they live their lives, make their decisions, and spend their hard earned money. Our group (being CCIT students) feel that we have a more critical approach to tearing down these ideologies, and would like to try to expose them for what they really are, teaching audiences to be more aware.

Key Determining Forces:

There are many forces that influence and reinforce this behavior, most of which is learned through the media. Culturally, even something as simple as a shopping mall creates ideas of what is popular and valued in society. Our literature, such as magazines and newspapers, give attention to celebrities that look and dress a certain way, reinforcing the idea that this is what society wants to read about and see. Economically, we are a society of spenders; we work hard and spend hard. North America has a huge consumer culture, and since we keep buying, retailers will continue to pump out new products to sell to us. The idea of “If you make it, they will buy it”.

Applied Analysis:

It is hard to really come up with an alternative to this situation. It has saturated our lives for so long, and the media is really a huge enemy to go up against. Those in control have lots of money, and use it to make sure they stay in charge, and to control the spread of information. The old saying “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” comes to mind. Obviously it would be impossible to try and make a new method in society of teaching values and culture that would be as large-scale and influential as the mass media. Therefore, we have decided to use their medium against them. Our group will culture jam by making spoofs of major well-known advertisements, as well as critically alter some other major media outlets (such as reality tv programming), to show that there are alternate views as oppose to just the ones that are presented to us. We don’t want audiences to just sit back and absorb, we want them to be critically involved and aware of what is going on around them.




Project Format:

As mentioned before, our group will produce spoofs of advertisements, and other media forms in order to gain attention to make audiences wake up and be more aware. This will take place in the form of Photoshop documents, possibly a PowerPoint slideshow or a website to share the results. One idea our group has is to have a social intervention component to the project, not just producing the items, but also helping to spread these messages to the public. We can print posters or stickers of our work, and distribute it in public places, especially where it directly clashes with its environment (for example: spoof ads of Burger King, posted outside the restaurant, in their bathrooms, and on their drive-through screen). We will then be hitting the audience at critical moments, and hopefully we can document some of this (through film, photographs, interviews, or surveys) and see if our work has any effect. We made this decision by talking to the group members about what their strengths are, and what they would be interested in creating. Some specific ideas we had are:
- Making ads that inform how media monopolies such as CanWest Global produce, distribute and control much of our media. If we don’t always believe something we hear from one person, why should we let all of our news sources come from one centralized company?
- Another is to make a spoof on the Mazda ads that say “Zoom Zoom Zoom”. We will make ads and the “Zoom Zoom Zoom” will relate to the rising gas prices and our helplessness as consumers
- As mentioned earlier, we will attack some fast food giants such as McDonalds, making spoof ads that take a spin off of their slogan and say, (for example) “I’m LOVIN IT that one in four children are obese.”

Research Plan:

So far we have looked at one of the main culture-jamming sources: Adbusters magazine. We are looking for some ideas and it is helping us to brainstorm potential tasks for us to try to do. On the Adbusters website, there are also other campaigns we are looking at to see their techniques in trying to create counter-culture (like the Blackspot Sneaker campaign, and Buy Nothing Day). By looking at how they got started, their strengths and weaknesses, we are getting a better idea of what might be a successful approach to this project. We have also been looking at some books such as Naomi Klein’s No Logo, The Rebel Sell by Joseph Heath, and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. We can see ourselves looking at some documentaries on culture, such as Bowling for Columbine, The Corporation, SuperSize Me, and more. We could also research some techniques that advertisers use, in order to expose them, or use them in our own campaigns.

Provisional Timeline/Work Breakdown:

Since we all have different areas of interest, we could all work on a spoof or expose that particularly interests us. Then we can explore that area in detail, and we will each come up with a really great idea. We will meet periodically to show each other what we have done so far, whether it be research wise or the actually production of the piece. This way, we can edit and constructively criticize each other’s works. Using everyone’s ideas will also help to unify the project, so that it is something we are all proud of. We should probably meet about every 7-10 days, and then about 2 weeks before the final project is due, we will all have our individual pieces done. This way, we have lots of time to fix any errors, put everything together (on the web or in print copies). Also, if we decide to do the social intervention part, we will meet up outside of school to execute and document this plan. Clearly if we do decide to do this, we will need to finish up our individual pieces earlier, to make time for this part.