George Orwell’s famous novel 1984 outlined a dark vision of the future, where the power of the state would dominate every aspect of our lives through cultural conditioning, fear and thought control.
Winston Smith, the central character in the book, is a 39 year old man living in London, who secretly hates the state and its dictatorial leader, Big Brother. He decides to rebel by starting a diary in which he reveals his disloyal thoughts. Throughout this diary, Winston commits ‘thought crime’, which is punishable by death.
Was Orwell’s vision just nightmarish science fiction, or is that future scenario our daily reality?
One of the most sinister and chilling methods of control used by the state in Orwell’s 1984 is the use of ‘thought control’. Large screens are situated in every room in every house, on every street, beaming out messages of what people should think while simultaneously monitoring their every action and listening to their every word.
In 2006, CCTV cameras monitor us on behalf of the state, and, increasingly, on behalf of private companies. Indeed, becoming even more powerful than the state itself are the giant corporations advertising on billboards, on every street, bus and train station, in colleges and even in our schools. The message is simple: ‘Buy the latest gadget, get the latest DVD, computer game or mobile tone. It’s what you need to do to be happy and fulfilled.’
All around us, every conceivable space is being taken over by corporate advertising – from urinals, to roundabouts and even bins, to the complete exterior of public buses.
Is there no respite from the avalanche?
Some public interest groups in the US suggest that access to public space for advertising purposes should be taxed. These campaigners believe that space is being freely taken advantage of by advertisers, with no compensation being paid to the members of the public who are being intruded upon.
Florida enacted such a tax in 1987; however, it was forced to overturn it after six months, under pressure from big commercial interests.
In Ireland, people like Joe Fogarty, a primary school teacher and founder of the Campaign for Commercial Free Education believe that no amount of compensation can justify the encroachment of advertising into certain spaces such as the school environment.
Best-selling books such as No Logo, Fast Food Nation and Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men have documented how corporations are taking over one of the last remaining commercial-free spaces by advertising and selling their goods in American schools. What has received far less attention is the fact that in-school marketing is just as prevalent in Irish primary and secondary schools and growing each year.
“The curriculum may speak of preparing students to recognise and cope with advertising outside of school, but at the same time a plethora of commercial schemes are colonising educational space and time for commercial profit,” Fogarty warns.
Such schemes are operated by ESSO, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, TESCO, Cadbury, Renault, AIB, Domestos, ‘Independent’ Newspapers, SuperValu, Spar, Harvey Norman, Pot Noodle – the list goes on.
Each year, Tesco send primary school children all over Ireland scurrying to collect e10 vouchers from parents, neighbours and relations in order to get basic computers and now sporting equipment for their school. Tesco provide collection boxes and target charts. Students strive to collect tokens to get, for example, a “free” captain’s armband for e900 worth of shopping. However, it’s too bad if Mammy prefers Aldi, or Daddy likes to support local producers.
McDonalds responded to concerns over childhood obesity by sponsoring the GAA’s Catch and Kick and Lift and Strike schemes. This allowed them to place their logo on the balls, pumps and even bibs that students wear during PE lessons in 3,000 (92%) of Irish primary schools. Even students whose parents discourage them from eating junk food – or who personally choose not to – were literally branded as walking advertisements for McDonalds.
Independent Newspapers will once more launch its Building for the Future scheme in 1,500 schools this January. No school can enter, however, without first producing 30 tokens from the Irish or Sunday Independent for every student on their roll. The Minister for Education has repeatedly endorsed this pressurising scheme, which gives a clear message that the quality of education available to your child depends on you reading the “right” newspaper.
In secondary schools, AIB bank is going even further with its Build a Bank scheme.
“This involves not only turning part of a school into a commercial premises, but also sees teams of transition – and fifth-year students performing, unpaid, the work of AIB staff; marketing their services, encouraging new accounts, and logging transactions,” Joe explains. “One wonders how would AIB react if students set up a school in a corner of their local branch and sought bank staff as voluntary tutors.”
Sinead Fahy teaches in St. Rose’s National School in Dublin. She is also involved in the Campaign for Commercial Free Education and feels that, as a teacher, she is in a privileged position of influence. If schools use the mainly unsolicited commercial material in their classrooms they are, she says, giving their stamp of approval for specific companies to a captive audience. “We have to stand up and say that we are not going to work to promote commercial interests – our classrooms are not for sale,” she explains.
A recent survey of primary schools in Dublin showed that schools suffer a shortfall of as much as e20,000 per year between the Government’s funding and the costs of cleaning, wages, lighting and class materials.
“Clearly, if there wasn’t such a shortfall of funding from the government, there wouldn’t be such pressure to use these schemes,” Sinead adds.
“Some promotional offers have even gone so far as to offer prizes to teachers if they get their class to participate. There is a thin veil of educational provision in some of the materials arriving in our schools, but the supply of educational curriculum materials from energy companies, fast food chains and supermarkets must be opposed with strong campaigning.”
The Campaign for Commercial Free Education was founded in 2005 in response to this avalanche of advertising. It believes such in-school marketing exploit a captive audience of students, pressurises parents and contaminates the learning process.
“Education is intended as an active, student-centred process, not a passive, product-centred pitch for sale to the highest bidder,” Joe believes.
The campaign invites parents, teachers and students to help establish their local schools as Commercial-Free zones where students are seen as citizens and not consumers.
The spirit of Winston Smith also thrives amongst graffiti artists. These artists use public space, not to sell products but to engage in art, often socially critical. Given that graffiti is illegal, artists in Dublin have used derelict spaces to practice their creative skills. However, the development of urban space has meant that graffiti artists are restricted to fewer and fewer places. For example, in Baldoyle a new development of e120 million worth of homes on Baldoyle’s racecourse will see not only the destruction of Baldoyle’s largest green space, but knock down a wall that has been used by graffiti artists (and small-time cannabis traders) for over 10 years.
While graffiti is increasingly difficult to practice in urban spaces, corporations like Sony are using it to market their new PSP handheld game device. Sony has hired graffiti artists to spray-paint buildings with images of kids playing with the PSP. But the Winstons out there are hitting back at this subversion of their subculture.
In San Francisco, genuine graffiti artists expressed their opposition by spray-painting their own messages on to the Sony ads. On a wall outside a beer garden in San Francisco’s bohemian Mission District, someone spray-painted over every character, adding the commentary, “Advertising directed at your counterculture,” “Get out of my city,” and the word “Fony” to the graffiti.
Is it good for society that we only see the messages that corporations and companies want us to see? Is it socially useful that we are denied messages of dissent just because such groups have no advertising budgets or space to relay their message?
Councillors on Dublin City Council (DCC) believe critical voices have a right to be heard. Joan Collins, an independent councillor, along with Cllr Dessie Ellis, has put down a motion for the January 9th DCC meeting to reverse a ban on postering. This ban, the councillors believe, censors the freedom of expression of groups and campaigns in Dublin City.
For over a year, DCC has refused outright to grant permission to campaigns and community groups to erect posters advertising public events and meetings. For example, DCC refused postering permission to the anti-bin tax campaign, the Shell to Sea campaign, Frank McBrearty’s campaign against Garda Corruption, homelessness campaigners, the Irish Anti-War movement and many more. However, the ban does not extend to postering by DCC itself to advertise ‘Smithfield on Ice’, which it hosts with BUPA.
According to Aisling Reidy of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, DCC’s ban on postering violates the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 (“ECHR Act”).
“The Council can choose to undertake the appropriate action and amend its policy to comply with its human rights obligations, or it can continue to violate our rights under the ECHR and wait until a victim is in a position to go to court to vindicate their rights. The first course of action is the one that demonstrates respect for democracy and balanced policies - the second would be the one of a school yard bully,” she says.
When Winston Smith is eventually discovered by the ‘Thought Police’ in 1984 they “re-integrate” him, torturing and brainwashing Winston until he fully submits to the state and its doctrines.
In the Ireland of 2006, the counter-cultures of graffiti artists, campaigns for commercial-free schools and campaigns for free speech are refusing to accept this brainwashing process, in the true rebellious spirit of Winston Smith.