Activist Chic

In These Times Associate Publisher Aaron Sarver raises his hackles if anyone uses any variation of the phrase "think outside the box" in his presence. For this reason I took particular notice of an e-mail I received yesterday from the Adbusters listserv in which founder Kalle Lasn claims that Adbusters has "dared to think outside the activist box." What is the long-time critic of corporate hegemony and consumer culture's latest feat of culture-jamming derring-do? Anyone familiar with Adbusters' MO will be surprised to learn that it's the production and marketing of a new shoe they've dubbed "Black Spot." It's a knockoff of the traditional black low-top All-Star, except there's a hand-rendered white blob instead of the circular "Chuck Taylor" logo (or Nike swoosh). It's perhaps no surprise then that Lasn employed such a cliched phrase of corporatespeak as "think outside the box" for Adbusters' new endeavor. (And further, the e-mail, which encouraged me to purchase the sneakers, is signed with the title "CEO, the Black Spot Anticorporation.") Some activist critics and Adbusters acolytes think Adbusters is out of line. Some had even speculated that the thing was a big hoax. The folks at Adbusters wouldn't really create a product, would they? And isn't an anti-brand a kind of brand? Lasn thinks the criticism is unfounded. "[Black Spot is] all part of a radical new strategy for cleaning up sweatshops and dirty CEOs--and just maybe, transforming capitalism itself," claims Lasn in an October 8, 2003, Salon article (be warned, you have to watch an ad to view this article if you're not a subscriber). In an interview with Irregular Times Lasn calls it "grassroots capitalism." Adbusters is producing their shoe the right way--the sneaker is made at a Portuguese factory with an excellent labor record, fabricated with organic hemp, and not promoted with the illusion of an unattainable lifestyle. The shoe even comes with a share in the Black Spot Anticorporation. But is this project really subversive? Naomi Klein doesn't think so. Klein, the author of No Logo, told Salon: "Publications that analyze the commercialization of our lives have a responsibility to work to protect spaces where we aren't constantly being pitched to. This can be undermined if they are seen as simply shilling for a different 'anti-corporate' brand." It will be interesting to see if Black Spot really hits Phil Knight in the pocketbook and "uncools" Nike as intended. And in the meantime, I'll be looking forward to the radical transformation of capitalism.