VITAMEDIAS
The Ad Subtractors, Making a Difference: Gary Ruskin is writing as fast as he can.
Every day in his home office in Portland, Ore., he types heartfelt pleas and blistering diatribes to politicians, news organizations, corporations and individuals. His mission: To stop advertisers from commandeering every last nook and cranny of American culture.
"Advertisers must understand that some places are sacred and therefore off-limits to peddling wares," he says. "Governments, schools and other civic institutions shouldn't be an auxiliary megaphone for corporate marketing."
The successes of Ruskin's five-year-old group, Commercial Alert, may represent the tip of a broad backlash against corporate incursions into health care, education, culture and government. Some believe such activism, known variously as ad-busting, culture-jamming, anti-corporatism and mental environmentalism, is the beginning of the next major social movement in America.