Consumerism Global Hero - Kalle Lasn
WTO & AIDS Global Hero - Margy Mikliechuk
Consumerism Global Hero - Kalle Lasn's Pet Pig
On November 26, 2002, a one-of-a kind TV commercial ran on CNN. Amongst the usual ads for laptops, cars and investment companies there was a talking pig telling people to buy ... nothing.
The pig is part of Buy Nothing Day, whose aim is to persuade people to go a whole day without making any purchases. The ad, which ran during Lou Dobbs' Moneyline, showed a pig saying that "the average North American consumes five times more than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese person and 30 times more than a person from India".
Kalle Lasn is the man who spearheaded the campaign to get the pig ad on the air. When he first approached NBC and CBS in 1999, they refused to run a commercial that told people not to buy anything. While Lasn had the $10,000 US to pay for the slot, CBS told him it would not play a commercial which was "in opposition to the current economic policy in the United States."
The commercial shows landfills full of junk and highways clogged with cars. At the end, the pig tells viewers "We are the most voracious consumers in the world. Give it a rest."
Lasn, himself a former advertising executive, is the founder and publisher of Adbusters, an alternative magazine that parodies well-known commercials. He says that he's trying to get people to think about the meaning of consumerism. "We are trying to stir up some debate," he said. "Over-consumption is killing the planet."
Adbusters raised about $10,000 in donations for the 30-second spot on CNN's Moneyline-which is the first network to air the ad.
Vital Stats
Kalle is from Estonia. He worked in the advertising industry during the 1960's before becoming a documentary film maker. Today, he is Editor of Adbusters, a magazine based out of Vancouver whose primary purpose is to subvert the culture of advertising.
"The founder of Adbusters magazine, Lasn argues that the incessant fog of corporate advertising… is limiting if not destroying people's ability to live an authentic life. Saturated by ads from infancy, children grow into adulthood believing false messages about sex, money and what makes for a satisfying life." Deidre Donahue, USA Today
To see more Adbusters Ads, go to http://adbusters.org/creativeresistance/spoofads/fashion/
WTO & AIDS Global Hero - Margy Mikliechuk
Margy Mikliechuk loves to work with her hands. She makes pottery-clay creations to be exact-and after earning a living at it for two years, she's on her way to Surinam where she will volunteer her skills as an artist to educate people about AIDS and HIV.
Margie will spend four months working with a group of local youth, and together they will create and perform a play about AIDS. This is a production with a twist: the characters will be larger than life.
"We're going to make giant eight-foot puppets," Margy explains, "then we're going to get inside them and perform."
Popular theatre is used all over the world to teach people about issues like AIDS. It is often more effective than radio announcements or public speeches. "It's peer-driven education," Margie says. "You don't stand in front of a class and teach-there's no authority figure. Instead, we create a whole new reality to show how AIDS affects people."
Surinam is a small country on the northeast side of South America with a population of 400,000. Margy and her group will travel by boat to remote communities to perform the play.
When Margy found out that she could use her art skills to do something about the AIDS crisis, she jumped at the opportunity. "The mainstay of my life is art," she says. "I always wanted to go overseas to do something, but being a teacher or nurse just didn't fit with me. I want to use art to affect people in a positive way."
Most of the funding for Margy's trip is from Canadian Crossroads International, an organization that sends young people overseas. If you are interested in learning more about them, check out their website at http://www.cciorg.ca/.
If you are interested in learning about other organizations that send young people overseas to do interesting work, visit Canada World Youth at http://www.cwy-jcm.org/ and Youth Challenge International at http://www.yci.org/index2.htm.
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