Using Customized Vinyl Banners To Culturejam, Create Something New

Ever hear of Adbusters, the Vancouver based global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs advancing the new social activist movement of the information age? (A lot of those words are from the About section on their website.)

To quote them directly, Adbusters is "dedicated to examining the relationship between human beings and their physical and mental environment. We want a world in which the economy and ecology resonate in balance. We try to coax people from spectator to participant in this quest. We want folks to get mad about corporate disinformation, injustices in the global economy, and any industry that pollutes our physical or mental commons." Or in a word they coined: culturejamming.

Basically, the way they coax people is through excellent art that mimics extant corporate advertising. They use high quality design and professional grade materials, whether in magazines or customized vinyl banners.  

Their spoof ads are always funny and provocative, but we really loved their 2008 campaign, "The One Flag Competition." The project: "We invite you to create a flag – free from language and well-worn clichés – that embodies the idea of global citizenship. A symbol that triggers pride and cohesion, whether worn on a backpack, displayed on a door, or flown on a flagpole. A symbol for anyone to declare membership in a growing and vital human cooperative. We invite you to prove that design has a real role to play in the fate of our world."

Well, as fans of customized vinyl banners wherever they appear, if they're made beautifully, we believe that design has a real role to play in the fate of our world.

The Adbusters contest ended, and the flag that won, "Marc's Flag" was a spectacularly simply flag. Picture a customized vinyl banner printed with the photo image of a blue sky and puffy white clouds. As it flies, it is practically indistinguishable from the sky behind it.   

So, what flag would you design if you could design any flag? We encourage you to take advantage of resources out there to "culturejam" your own environment. Here are five ideas, just cues to get you started. Think of them as mini-contests with yourself (or invite your friends to join).

1. Family flag. What would you design? Photo images of you own immediate family? Your closest friends? Green and blue to represent the entire earth?

2. Soul flag. This is a wild one. What would symbolize the soul, in your opinion? What is the soul, anyway?

3. Love flag. Red hearts? Or is that too simple, even meaningless by now. What image could you proudly display that would shout love to the world?

4. The Real Revolution flag. What would this mean for you? Where, in your opinion, is a revolution most necessary?

5. You flag. What would you most like to be represented by on a flag? It's a less morbid question than "what would you like carved on your tombstone?" And customized vinyl banners aren't particularly expensive, nor do they have to be permanent, not like carving something in stone. (Though we can imagine some great Adbusting there, too! Wasn't Auden's epitaph on the grave of the Unknown Soldier something like that, in its own way?)