a couple of months ago i watched this riveting short film called "BLO Nightly News with Brian Williams" made by the BLO (Barbie liberation organization).
In the fall of 1993 a group of artists/hackers/civil rights activists exchanged the voiceboxes of 300 Barbie and G.I. Joe dolls. The result was 150 G.I. Joes that said things like "Lets go shopping!" and "Math is hard!", and 150 Barbie dolls that said things like "Vengeance is mine!". The BLO then engaged in the process they call "shopgiving" where the 300 dolls are repackaged in their original wrapping and sneaked onto the shelves of the toy stores in 43 states. (NOTE that the BLO actually made the toy stores a profit because they gave the toy stores dolls that were then bought).
The media response was extraordinary-almost every news station covered the BLO's smart project which, in turn, drew attention to the underlying cause; children's toys that promote culture jamming and gender stereotyping.
The project uses recycled images and voices to blur the distinction between producer and consumer (both of toys and of media) while simulatenousely exposing the agenda of corporate media companies, gender biases, and media piracy laws.
Watch "BLO Nightly News" to see what I mean:
on
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
3 comments:
children's toys promote culture jamming? what?
whats the deal with the dan rather situation at the end of the video?
not sure adi, yeah, its pretty weird..? a
and yes to anonymous: culture jamming is the term the BLO uses to describe the act of instilling racial stereotypes in children at a young age thru toys, films, etc.
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