Culture jamming presents itself as an answer to the question: “how to box with shadows?” (Mark Dery) In other words, how can critical scholars, satirists and consumers engage with an information economy that uses media as ammunition in the perpetual drive to further capital and consumer compliance. Through the subversion of subtle messaging in all avenues of news, entertainment and advertising, the goal of culture jammers is to joyfully dismantle oppressive ideologies, including those that prop up binary notions of gender and societal roles. As such, the jamming philosophy invoked in my alteration of a Mr. Clean print ad is that of gender equality and opposition to the idea that women belong in the home, doing domestic jobs. Thus, this approach is one example of the sub-genre of culture jamming known as “subvertising” (Mark Dery).

Mr. Clean’s print advertisement perpetuates normative societal gender roles and attempts to dictate what constitutes important work for women. Therefore, the first major alteration made to the original advertisement was replacing the mother and daughter with a father and son. The gender-swap was intended to reverse the suggestion that women should solely be responsible for cleaning duties in the home. The representation of a father teaching his son how to clean the window is intended to promote the fact that men and women are equal in their abilities and that men should share in domestic work. It is by more men taking part in their share of labour in the home, that stereotypes around feminine work may be broken.

The second edit in my culture jam was to change the existing slogan, which seemed to instruct and command the woman to engage in what the company deemed suitable work for women. Instead, the new slogan reads, “Every Job is a Job that Matters”. The ideology is thus that every job has value, regardless of who does it. Furthermore, the slogan strives to demonstrate that men and women are capable of doing the same job, without shame or alienation.

 
The underlying connotation of this message is that, were men willing and enabled by society to take on an equal share of domestic work, women would be free to explore work outside the home as they are likewise equally capable. This process is indicative of both how powerful media is in setting societal norms, as well as how culture jamming presents a means of furthering progressive ideas in a consumerist culture.