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==Issues== ===Anti-advertising=== Adbusters describes itself as anti-advertising: it blames advertising for playing a central role in creating and maintaining consumer culture. This argument is based on the premise that the advertising industry goes to great effort and expense to associate desire and identity with commodities. Adbusters believes that advertising has unjustly "colonized" public, discursive and psychic spaces, by appearing in movies, sports and even schools, so as to permeate modern culture.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> Adbusters's stated goals include combating the negative effects of advertising and empowering its readers to regain control of culture, encouraging them to ask "Are we consumers and citizens?"<ref>[Marnie W. Curry-Tash, "The Politics of Teleliteracy and Adbusting in the Classroom", ''English Journal'' 87(1), 1998]</ref> Since ''Adbusters'' concludes that advertising conditions people to look to external sources, to define their own personal identities, the magazine advocates a "natural and authentic self apart from the consumer society".<ref name="ReferenceA" /> The magazine aims to provoke anti-consumerist feelings. By juxtaposing text and images, the magazine attempts to create a means of raising awareness and getting its message out to people that is both aesthetically pleasing and entertaining.<ref name="depts.washington.edu">{{cite web|url=http://depts.washington.edu/gcp/pdf/culturejamsandmemewarfare.pdf |title="Culture Jams and Meme Warfare: Kalle Lasn, Adbusters, and media activism", Wendi Pickerel, Helena Jorgensen, and Lance Bennett, 19 April 2002|access-date=29 March 2014}}</ref> Activism also takes many other forms such as corporate boycotts and 'art as protest', often incorporating humor. This includes billboard modifications, [[google bombing]], [[flash mobs]] and fake parking tickets for [[SUVs]]. A popular example of cultural jamming is the distortion of [[Tiger Woods]]' smile into the form of the [[Nike, Inc.|Nike]] swoosh, calling viewers to question how they view Woods' persona as a product. ''Adbusters'' calls it "trickle up" activism, and encourages its readers to do these activities by honoring culture jamming work in the magazine. In the September/October 2001 "Graphic Anarchy" issue, Adbusters were culture jammed themselves in a manner of speaking: they hailed the work of Swiss graphic designer [[Ernst Bettler]] as "one of the greatest design interventions on record", unaware that Bettler's story was an elaborate [[hoax]]. ===Media Carta=== "Media Carta" is a charter challenging the corporate control of the public airwaves and means of communication. The goal is to "make the public airwaves truly public, and not just a corporate domain."<ref name="depts.washington.edu" /> Over 30,000 people have signed the document {{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} voicing their desire to reclaim the public space. On 13 September 2004, Adbusters filed a lawsuit against six major Canadian television broadcasters (including [[CanWest Global Communications|CanWest Global]], [[Bell Globemedia]], [[CHUM Limited|CHUM Ltd.]], and the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]]) for refusing to air Adbusters videos in the television commercial spots that Adbusters attempted to purchase. Most broadcasters refused the commercials, fearing the ads would upset other advertisers as well as violate business principles by "contaminating the purity of media environments designed exclusively for communicating commercial messages".<ref name="depts.washington.edu" /> The lawsuit claims that Adbusters' [[freedom of expression]] was unjustly limited by the refusals.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/adbusters-takes-canadian-tv-networks-to-court-1.477372 |publisher=[[CBC News]] |title=Adbusters Takes Canadian TV Networks to Court |date=15 September 2004 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071206041611/http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2004/09/15/adbusters040915.html |archive-date=6 December 2007 }}</ref> Adbusters believes the public deserves a right to be presented with viewpoints that differ from the standard. Under Section 3 of the Broadcasting Act, television is a public space allowing ordinary citizens to possess the same rights as advertising agencies and corporations to purchase 30 seconds of airtime from major broadcasters.<ref>[http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Adbusters-Media-Foundation-971292.html "Adbusters Wins Legal Victory in Ongoing Case Against the CBC and CanWest", Marketwire.com, 6 April 2009] {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> There has been talk that if Adbusters wins in Canadian court, they will file similar lawsuits against major U.S. broadcasters that also refused the [[Advertising|advertisements]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.satyamag.com/may05/lasn.html |title=Satya May 2005: Interview with Kalle Lasn of Adbusters |publisher=Satyamag.com |access-date=29 March 2014}}</ref> [[CNN]] is the only network that has allowed several of the foundation's commercials to run.{{citation needed|date=November 2011}} ===Legal action=== On 3 April 2009, the [[British Columbia Court of Appeal]] unanimously overturned a [[Supreme Court of British Columbia|BC Supreme Court]] ruling that had dismissed the case in February 2008. The court granted Adbusters the ability to sue the Canadian Broadcasting Company and CanWest Global, the corporations that originally refused to air the anti-car ad "Autosaurus". The ruling represents a victory for Adbusters, but it is the first step of their intended goal, essentially opening the door for future legal action against the media conglomerates.{{citation needed|date=November 2011}} [[Kalle Lasn]] declared the ruling a success and said, "After twenty years of legal struggle, the courts have finally given us permission to take on the media corporations and hold them up to public scrutiny."<ref>Morrow, Fiona (6 April 2009). [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090406.wads0406/BNStory/National/home, Fiona Morrow, "Adbusters Wins Right To Sue Broadcasters over TV Ads"] ''[[The Globe and Mail]]''.</ref>
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