Shopdropping and Droplifting
Shopdropping is an ongoing project in which Ryan Watkins-Hughes alters the packaging of canned goods and then “shopdrops” them back onto grocery store shelves. He replaces the packaging with labels created using his own photographs. Although not explicitly activist, this campaign intervenes in traditional marketing tactics, and thus in our (consumers’) everyday lives. My girlfriend and I have staged similar culture jamming schemes.
Droplifting is a related concept. Some sound collage artists took a page from the Situationists book and sort of inverted the idea of détournement (stealing cultural elements from their original sources and re-routing them for subversive ends.) Instead of stealing, though, they gave away copies of their CDs in places like Best Buy and Tower Records. Their efforts were more political, and landed them a much deserved article at Adbusters.org.
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