~Media 112 Popular Culture~ Final Project

1. ~Media 112 Popular Culture~Final Project Hit F5 to start Or select “slide show – view show”

2. ~Media 112 Popular Culture~Final Project The Shadow People Casey Chadwick Ayako Suzuki Jeremy Catherall Kurtis Howes Simon Cameron Jeff LeGrow

3. A Shadow People/Grassroots Production

4. Issue: Taking back public spaces infected by corporate advertising • Each day our public space is saturated with advertising that encroaches on our private lives • At the college, we are continually inundated with images of Pepsi • Pepsi is actively hailing the student body as potential consumers

5. The Vending Machines are everywhere, waiting patiently for us to give into desire, and buy their product.

6. But Pepsi is not the only corporation to invade our public space on a daily basis…

14. It all becomes a little too much after awhile. We felt we needed to resist.

15. Our Plan:Mess with the Man

16. Our Group decided that the best way to combat Pepsi was to Ad-jam the Vending Machines that pop-up so frequently on our daily jaunts around campus.

17. But First, What Exactly is Ad-Jamming? For those of you who don’t know what ad-jamming is, we thought we would supply a brief explanation:

18. Explanation of “Culture (Ad.) jamming” • (Ad. jamming) “Culture jamming is anything, essentially, that mixes art, media, parody and the outsider stance.”1 • (Ad. jamming) is a method of transmitting a message or idea to an audience, by altering an advertisement that is infringing upon the public sphere; to convey a different message than it was originally intended too. • (Ad, jamming) reclaims space that has been privatized, and returns it to the public. 1Taken from the globeandmail.com Excerpts From the book No Logo by Naomi Klein

19. Examples of Work from other Jammers

20. We Knew our Target

21. So off to work we went

22. We decided to go straight to the source… • We interviewed Ron E. Ward, a Pepsi Employee, who was happy to answer a few of our questions

23. Ron E. WardAlways ready to talk to the little guy.

24. In this interview we discovered • Pepsi alone delivers over 400 cases of pop per-order • Malaspina makes two orders per week • 2 orders x 400 cases = 800 cases of Pepsi per week • This doesn’t even include the vending machines

25. The Vending Machines

26. The Vending machines on campus are operated by a company called Ryan Vending. • Ryan Vending has these machines on loan from PepsiCo and is responsible for filling and maintaining them. • These vending machines are in almost every building on campus. All this Pepsi really starts to add up…

31. Even in the Velvet Underground Pepsi Reigns Supreme

33. But Where are all the Other Brands?

34. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

35. Apparently Pepsi has a 10 year exclusivity contract with Malaspina. This contract covers all “cold beverages.” The only exceptions are Milk, and Jones Soda. This contract also extends to all events hosted on campus. Pepsi has a “Right of First Refusal.” This means that Pepsi can veto an on campus event just because it has a different sponsor. To Answer this question we went to see the Director of Business Operations, Kathryn Macleod.

36. We Asked to See the Contract • We wanted to look at the Pepsi Contract for ourselves, but… • “[The Pepsi Corp.] consider[s] the contents of the contract confidential because they do not want their competitors knowing about the details of the agreement.”2 • I guess we should consider it a compliment that Pepsi considers our six person Media Studies group a competitor 2Macleod, Kathryn. “Pepsi Questions” E-Mail to Jeremy Catherall. Nov. 26, 2004

37. In return for exclusive control over Mal’s “cold drinks” Pepsi is to give Malaspina College: Cash Free Pepsi Product for special events Extra Scholarship Money Funding for Athletics and Culinary Arts What Does the College Receive?

38. Government Cutbacks have left many Educational Institutions in need of alternate sources of funding. But is corporate sponsorship of a public service the right way to go? Do we want to be selling advertising space in an educational institute? But Why Do We Need Handouts From Pepsi?

39. The Bottom Line is … More Corporate Activity on Campus means less public space for students.

40. Determined to alter this trend our group pressed on • We submitted a proposal to the Media Department and included our intentions for ad-jamming the Pepsi Vending Machines. • We also included plans for a public presentation at the Woodgrove Mall in support of ‘Buy Nothing Day.’

41. Rejection • But to our great surprise and alarm, our proposal was rejected by the Media Studies Department. Not only did they refuse to support our ad-jamming, but they refused to award us course credit for the Woodgrove demonstration. • The official reason was: “After much discussion, we felt compelled to conclude that the Media Studies department is not in a position to formally approve students breaking the law for course credit, no matter how compelling, creative, and ethical the project.”3 3Navaa Smolash, Marshall Soules, and Steve Lane “Report to MEDI 112 Ad Jamming project group.” Media Studies Deot. Malaspina U-C.

42. Our group felt surprised and dismayed to be suddenly rejected.

43. Our group met with Marshall Soules, Head of the Media Dept., to try and come to a compromise.

44. The Negotiations were intense, and at times things looked bleak from both sides.

45. After some compromise, a deal was struck.

46. It would take some major revamping but the project would go on…

47. The New Plan • The original proposal would have to be revised and re-written

48. After working long and hard the new proposal was finally finished.

49. Rejection … Again • The revised proposal was submitted once again for the approval of the department. • And once again … no dice.

50. For some of the group, this second rejection was almost too much to take.