Books and films
In his first book, Culture Jam, Lasn portrays consumerism as the fundamental evil of the modern era. He calls for a "meme war": a battle of ideas to shift Western society away from consumer capitalism. Lasn, in his book, calls on the values of authenticity, individuality and freedom of expression. He promotes the rebelling of the notion that hierarchies can dictate people’s identities. Essentially, Lasn’s concept of culture jamming calls upon consumers to value experiences over possessions, while accusing marketing experts of co-opting these values and "slapping a brand name on them".[5]
His second book, Design Anarchy, calls on graphic designers, illustrators and others to turn from working in service to corporate and political pollution of both the planet and "the mental environment", and to embrace a radical new aesthetic devoted to social and environmental responsibility.. The book, which in an introduction to Lasn’s notion of culture jamming, includes a compilation of some of Adbuster’s greatest moments, but with the addition of what Lasn calls a "technical event", which forces the mind to take notice of something and search for meaning, even if there is no meaning. This "technical event" invites readers to become mindful of their patterns of consumption. Similar to Lasn’s prior book, Design Anarchy is a "personal statement, manifesto and textbook", which takes many of the prominent advertising campaigns found in the Adbusters magazine, and reconfigures them to stop "the flow of bits of information long enough to interrupt the spectacle, to promote the jolt, to allow the process of awareness". In the book, Lasn claims that if members of a society can begin by demarking themselves, then they are able to de-market certain rituals imposed by commercial forces, consequently shifting the ways in which the customer interacts with mass media, the way information flows, and the ways in which meaning is produced, ultimately leading to a break in commercial meaning and a shift to a post-consumerist society.[6]
In his third book, Meme Wars: The Creative Destruction of Neoclassic Economics, Lasn prefaces the book by calling on University students to realize that they are being "fooled by the façade" of the capitalist educational system, adding that the lack of incorporation of externalities such as species extinction, resource depletion, climate change, and financial meltdowns has turned the profession into a "target for derision and ridicule". Lasn challenges students to look beneath the surface of the façade to realize that economics is a "highly contested" and "questionable" field. To do so, Lasn offers two distinct ways for students to approach their academic endeavours: to either "accept the status quo" of the system, or become "an agitator, a provocateur, a meme warrior, and occupier", calling on students to engage in a paradigm shift within educational institutions. The book includes a series of essays, photographs and advertisements, which support Lasn’s approach to culture jamming.[7]
Lasn made documentary films for 20 years beginning in 1970 - many of them to do with Japan, the homeland of his wife, Masako Tominaga.[8] His award-winning films include:
- Bears and Man (Co-writer, editor)[9]
- Japan Inc: Lessons for North America?[10]
- Japanese Woman[11]
- Satori in the Right Cortex[12]
- The Rise and Fall of American Business Culture
- The Autumn Rain: Crime in Japan
