We wanted this culture jam to serve as a type of "how to" -- as a prototype any Tom, Dick, or Harry could follow. With just a little ingenuity, some colored paper, and a healthy dose of angst against AOL, we not-so-stealthily "attacked" a local Publix supermarket. We slid our anti-AOL propaganda over the existent ads on as many shopping carts as possible. That is, until big bully security guard man shooed us away.
We think the messages of the flyers are self-explanatory -- you can download them or watch the quicktime movie.
At 8:30 am, on July 9, 2002, we embarked on our first premeditated and deliberate culture jam. Our target was an upcoming Starbucks Coffee, the fourth on Lincoln Road -- a 7-block pedestrian mall located in South Beach, Miami. Beyond the obvious overabundance of 4 Starbucks within 7 blocks of each other, the site was chosen because of it is a high foot-traffic area, giving us greater possibility of effect. We spray mounted the construction wall directly adjacent to the property with 11" x 17" sheets of paper – together they formed a life size (6 ft. high) silhouette of a man drinking coffee, looking at the “Brewing Soon" Starbucks sign, with a caption that reads "I love a good Starbucks invasion."
The jam was meant to instigate, to irritate, but to do so inconspicuously. The copy is mildly ironic because it mimics the expression, "I love a good cup of coffee" and loyal Starbucks patrons might not even catch the significance of the word "invasion" thinking the jam just another advertisement.