Oily Dollar Bills
Today Kristin Moe of Oil Change bring us their presidential Dollar ATM, which dispenses “dollars with your representative’s name on them and how much they’ve accepted from the Oil industry.”
She writes:
Oil Change is a nonprofit that works to expose the influence of oil money in congress, and we have on our site (www.oilchangeusa.org) an “Oily Dollar Bill” machine . . . We’re pretty darn excited about it.
I find the phenomenon of culture jamming dollar bills is full of paradoxes. Used by social movements on the right and left to criticize, celebrate, or call attention to stories beyond the scope of the mainstream, designs like this are usually tactical, and linked to particular organizations with specific goals. The approach both comments on, and is supported by a culture of greed, and their popularity speaks volumes about American culture. I certainly don’t mean to demean these artists’ and activists’ efforts by raising questions about the approach. I wonder, though, is this a specifically American phenomenon? How do others feel about these (and other, similar) designs?
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