Recently I scanned the fliers and posters that were glued to the perimeter walls of a Melbourne construction site. I used this anthropology technique to track the memes that have migrated across the city's landscapes of fear during a specific time-period. On a sunny afternoon in late March, whilst taking "psychic snapshots" of this cultural detritus, I accidentally came across something very interesting.

The fliers and posters could be grouped into several categories for content analysis. There were entertainment ads for upcoming gigs by Midnight Oil, Henry Rollins, the film Exit Wounds, The Marque nightclub, and Kiss FM, one of Melbourne's dance music radio stations. There were activist fliers too, mentioning the May Day Picnic for Peace and Melbourne's Free Traffic Day. The usual eye-candy.

Fans Fight for Fairer Football: A Shadowy Activist Group?

On this afternoon, however, my gaze was drawn to a broadsheet poster by Fans Fight for Fairer Football, a shadowy activist group. Questions flooded my mind. Had they emerged in the wake of the S11 protests, which had rocked Melbourne's Crown Casino for three days in September 2000? Were the Media Circus activists playing another prank on us? Were they promoting street art or dangerous propaganda?

The broadsheet poster was black and white, and had obviously been covertly printed on someone else's printing press: there were jagged edges, smudges, and unaliased lettering in the typewriter font that was favored by radical activist groups. "Ban The Boots!" screamed the headline, with a subheading asking "Is Fair a Four Letter Word?" to pedestrians and shoppers. Familiar anti-maquiladora sloganeering. Whoever this group was, they had clearly read Naomi Klein's book No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies (Picador USA, 2000), which was becoming a "sleeper" bestseller in Australia. This group was anti-technology ("Fair Minded Footy Fans Say 'Not Fair' Mr. Technology) and anti-futurist ("What Next, Rocket Packs?"). There was no address, no phone or fax number, no e-mail. Just a Web site address that didn't work.

The Truth and The Light

Fans Fight for Fairer Football was no activist group, but to the passer-by, it sure resembled one. The fans were not fighting against media censorship or against maquiladora market economics. They were angry about Nike Air Zoom Total 90 and Air Zoom International shoes. They were angry about stud patterns and tongueless one piece uppers, angry about off-center lacing and patented Zoom Air features. They were angry that superstar players like Essendon's James Hird and North Melbourne's Wayne Carey had "sold out" by wearing performance-enhancing boots. And even if the world doesn't watch Australian Rules Football, they were going to let the world know. On their own terms.

No scathing critique of mercantile capitalism could be found on this broadsheet poster. No revelation about global tyranny. No inspirational messages for youth activists. "What on Earth is going on?" asked the Fairer Football activists. "Think of the distress and mental anguish felt by less talented, less tall, and less good looking full forwards?" Don't think about the abysmal working conditions and wage slavery of the 'employees' who made the Nike Air Zoom shoes. "Which raises the question, what percentage of the Gum tree is determination, grit and graft and what percentage is technology, equipment and boots?" they queried. Right now, I'd like to query if future generations will uphold Phil Knight, Nike's CEO, as a moral exemplar of our era.

Currents in the Slipstream

It was only a matter of time before Nike copied the 'surface values' (icons, rituals, dress codes, artifacts, events, observable activities, behaviors and objects) utilized by activists, I mused, re-fashioning the 'hidden values' (ideas, beliefs, -isms, attitudes, norms, trends, unwritten rules) to their own predetermined ends. If marketers knew the common patterns of change and transition, they could predetermine these ends by controlling both imagery ('surface values') and context ('hidden values'). Any activist or change movement that relied solely on these strata for effective dialogue and recruitment could be scanned and tracked from afar, and then manoeuvred into a cul de sac.

The strategies were not oblique, but obvious. First, deny the same access to media and control representations. Secondly, link simple ideas, such as "activism" and "violence" and "illegitimacy" within in the public sphere. Thirdly, appropriate the icons and themes, detach from any radical self-change agenda, dumb down, comodify, and stir. If Nike was marketing the Air Zoom shoes as their "most offensive shoe, ever", was there a double meaning beyond sport analogies? Who was Nike offending, or what was Nike conducting an offensive against?

Symptoms of the Universe

As I ran to catch a passing tram, I recalled Greil Marcus and his influential tome Lipstick Traces (Harvard University Press, 1990). Hadn't Marcus argued that the revolutionary potential of the Situationist Internationale and punk rock had been subsumed by Homo Economicus, leaving behind only 'lipstick traces'? Wouldn't change in the world "out there" also require experiential change of the world "in here"?

It was all too philosophical for me. So, I glanced at a tram shelter ad that said "Get It By 9:00 Or You'll Miss It All Day", and just obeyed it, for some reason. Maybe the copywriters had studied hypnotism, mentalism and the potential for human suggestibility. The evening shadows were lengthening, and I was suddenly feeling tired.