Bitchin' jeans! Want a sign?
The cooption of opposing political forces has always been a useful tactic in counteracting instability caused by non-majority thinking. If you can get the same message out under the guise of a dominant political arm, you can "deflate the sails," so to speak, of a potentially dangerous progressive movement.
It almost goes without saying that the dominant political and social structure in the United States is, or at least is supported by, corporate capitalism. And while not always the most effective force, simple protest, be it "rabble rousers" in Seattle (a much lighter label than the media would be willing to give) or the recent protestors in NYC during the World Economic Forum, is the current progressive force pitted against the status quo.
I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me to see an ad for Diesel Clothing Company in which brand-less, Strokes-inspired, twenty-something mods protest what could either be corporate fascism, full scale war, or maybe just a lack of foliage (the most visible sign screams the very vague statement of "Plant More Flowers"). Greasy and resolute, the model/protesters are not just protecting their ideals, but doing it in style! "Action! For Successful Living" the ad declares in revolution red. Lest you think they’re totally tongue-in-cheek, Diesel offers their website as a place to "protest, support and act."
I’m trying to think of one protester that I know who would be caught wearing designer jeans to a rally; it’s kind of like working at Outback Steakhouse and wearing your work uniform to a macrobiotic cooking class. No, this ad was never meant to reach the people with enough temerity and sense of social justice to protest. Instead, corporate capitalism has coopted the controversy, the cool, of protest. And cool has basically become the only opiate worth anything to the dominant culture.
And, yes, I know that someone, or maybe two people, on the Diesel marketing staff see their ads as the social commentary that they are. How, for example, does a protester dress for a rally when he or she will not buy jeans and a t-shirt from a brand? Their clothes probably won’t be from Wal-mart or K-mart either; why trade one overworked child from Singapore for another? Are protesters of corporate capitalism left to growing their own cotton and weaving it into jumpsuits?
The main problem lies in the fact that, while these ads may be Adbuster-quality, "Let’s f*** things up from the inside"-type visual messages, only five percent of readers are even going to think about it past the thought of "cool jeans on that one who’s shaking her fist at The Man." I pity the anthropologists who dig up the Fall issue of Black Book in 300 years. Mental mediocrity is cemented once again by a glossy picture of beautiful people.
