So you think your pretty smart huh?

I’ll start by saying that I was an avid reader of Ad-busters for many years. Earlier in my youth I couldn’t wait to get the new issue, and it wasn’t until I got a little older and wiser that I realized that Ad-busters itself is really just doing what is talked about in rebel sell (Selling a counter-culture)

What you get when you buy Ad-busters is a false sense of superiority and a whole in your wallet. Why should a magazine that hates the idea of mass-consumerism be the most expensive one on the shelf? It might be said that the magazine costs more to buy due to the fact that there are no advertisers to share some of the cost for producing the magazine, but if that was the case and the editors really were looking out for the costumer in trying to lower the rate of consumption, then why is it printed on high-gloss paper (I’m sure you could get away with printing it on something more environmentally as well as economically friendly paper).

The truth is that Ad-busters is really doing nothing more than selling the idea of counter-culture. It can be seen when speaking to some of the long-time readers. You can hear it in their voice. The distain they have for almost everything. The felt sense of superiority they feel they have come to deserve due to the thought enlightened state of a moral compass. It really sickened me when I thought about the fact that for so long I was also one of these ‘self-righteous little morons’. If you take a real look at the contents of the book you will start to notice that the way it is put together is meant to distract from the real issues they ultimately glaze over

I mean you seriously have to be ADD to be able to read the magazine. Every page is plastered with images that are overly grotesque and unnecessarily in your face. If this magazine is supposed to inform, then why the hell is it made so fucking hard to read. It really became nothing more than anti-America propaganda, and even for someone such as me, who sees too many problems with the American government and way of life (and that means the Canadian way of life as well, don’t get me started on the way we as Canadians feel ourselves to be so much better than our American counter-parts, Total bullshit.) it started to seem like nothing more than a bitch magazine ( a whole lot of bitching and complaining with no real constructive solutions for any of the issues they complained about).

One of the main concepts brought up quite frequently is the idea of the “no-shopping days”, which is the editors trying to get readers to think about not shopping on certain days and taking a look at the rate of consumption in America. This seems all right in theory and really does do what they want it to do. It shocks people, especially people that are not readers of the magazine. It makes people aware of the fact that we as a society consume way more than is necessary to maintain a moderate way-of-life. But when the problem arises is when the “no-shopping days” turn into the “no-shopping season”.

While the lack of consumption may be great for the editors of this magazine (I’m sure not poor, starving people), it would have the biggest impact on the people who were just trying to do what they thought was the right thing to do ( in the end realizing that they really were just easily manipulated and coerced). Who exactly is going to feel the lack of consumption the most? Is it going to be the big wigs that people are feeling are getting rich off the capitalist era or is it going to be the people in the low income jobs that are produced by this high consumption, high convenience necessary society “WE” have created..
So when you see the Ad-busters magazine at your local news-stand, think twice before you eagerly pick it up and shell out almost $10 bucks. Unless you’re a masochist and want to be reminded of how shitty the world can be ( but alas there is no real solution, not in that book anyways) or you like to display it in your living room to get the admiration of those that will find it spectacular that you also have joined the club. The club that is only for those that hate how consumerism and capitalism bring down the hard-working people, but can also afford to spend what the hard-working people make in a two-hour span on a flashy magazine.

Remember you can’t produce Counter-consumption without consumption
(So have fun buying your ten dollar magazine while your at the store picking up your $1.50 sugar water )