Anti-consumerist capitalism: culture jammers, sneaker peddlers.

• Author: Sanchez, Julian
• Position: Citings

READERS of Adbusters got a shock when they picked up the September/October issue of the anti-corporate, anti-consumer culture set's flagship magazine. The back cover sported riot one of the publication's famous ad spoofs but a genuine advertisement for the soon-to-be-produced Blackspot sneaker.

The shoe, explains Adbusters founder Kalle Lasn, is being sold as an anti-Nike brand, a way of "kicking Phil Knight's ass." Blackspot sneakers will be made in a South Korean factory that was abandoned by Nike when it unionized. Lasn hopes you'll be able to pick up the shoe in independent stores, or order it from Blackspot sneaker.org, within six to nine months. "It depends how well our marketing campaign works," says Lasn. "Of course, if we're lucky and get some investors, it could take off very rapidly."

Some of Lasn's fellow activists are less than sanguine about the shift from a strategy of opposing corporations to one of beating them at their own game. Among the skeptics is Naomi Klein, author of the anti-corporate bible No Logo. "Writers and publications who analyze the commercialization and privatization of our lives have a responsibility to work to protect spaces where we aren't constantly being pitched to," Klein told Canada's Globe and Mail. "This can be undermined if they are seen as simply shilling for a different, 'anti-corporate' brand."

Lasn has little patience for...