Adbusters

It is still funny to me that a magazine advocating anti-consumerism can be sold in major chain bookstores. I think there's a lesson in there, about how consumerism can be turned against itself.

Here are a couple of my favorite things from the spring 1996 issue.

One reader had sent in a Gap postcard. The card showed a skinny model in black denim holding her fingers to her slightly open mouth as if she'd just realizing something … and a thought bubble had been added.

Oh my God! Advertising encourages needless consumption! I feel so … dirty!

I appreciated the following observation, made in a cartoon.

Urging people to consume is NONPOLITICAL.
Urging people not to consume is POLITICAL.

I also liked the spoof ads, which I see are now available online.

I only ever bought that one issue of the magazine. Partly that's because I had to—I'd be missing the point if I went and paid money for it every month. Partly it's because I wanted to be able to say I'd only bought one. And partly it's because the focus of the magazine seems to have wandered off in a direction that doesn't interest me.