Were they harmless, an innocent joke? You might feel that way but they were forerunners of several Lunatic Fringe Operations that have gone past the fun stage. An example now, in 2022 is Extinction Rebellion, which is run by self-righteous rogues with sophisticated ideas about publicity and manipulation but deeply ignorant of science and reality. Others are Feminism, the Transgender racket and above all the en masse Immigration of Third World parasites and criminals. That is Government Policy. It is Ethnic Fouling, causing Genocide. It is also Treason.
You might date origin of crazies back to the 1960s and flower power. They produced some great music; there were did a great services for Gonorrhea and the Narcotics Industry a major boost. Alternatively look back to 1556AD when our betters, Quasi-Intellectuals, men at the University of Oxford, captured a brace of Anglican bishops plus Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, gave them a fair trial and burnt them at the stake as heretics. More and better details at the Protocols Of The Learned Elders Of Oxford.
Barbie Liberation Organization ex Wiki
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The Barbie Liberation Organization or BLO, sponsored by RTMark, were a group of artists and activists involved in culture jamming. They gained notoriety in 1993 after switching voice boxes in talking G.I. Joes and Barbie dolls. The BLO performed "surgery" on a reported 300–500 dolls from retail and returned them to shelves, an action they refer to as shopgiving. Thus, Teen Talk Barbie dolls would say phrases such as "Vengeance is mine", while G.I. Joe dolls would say phrases such as "The beach is the place for summer!"[1]Motivation and context
The BLO was originally conceived in an effort to question and ultimately change the gender stereotypes American culture is known for after Mattel released a speaking Barbie that said "Math class is tough."[2] It took place in the middle of the culture wars of the 1990s when creative dissent was once again gaining popularity and artists and activists were often trying to conceive of new ways to rebel against cultural stereotypes and powerful forms like network TV. By 1993, criticism of Barbie as a negative gender stereotype for women[3] was commonplace both in academia and popular culture. This may have been partially responsible for the generally positive response of the public to the project—the criticism they were making was familiar and not a controversial point to make during the 1990s. Although their criticism was not new, the creative form of hacking used by the BLO was noteworthy.[4][5]Methods
There is a detailed description of the complex "surgery" they performed originally available on their website, now archived elsewhere, encouraging others to take part in the surgeries themselves.[6] The surgery required some technical skills, tools and precision, but the voice boxes in the dolls were similar enough that the surgery could be reproduced fairly easily in other parts of the country. They outlined the surgery in easy to understand images. After the surgery they would secretly return the toys to shelves, what they call reverse shoplifting.They also produced a video to explain their point.[7] They used the familiar form of the nightly news message, collaged with cutting edge video art techniques to get their point across. Viewers would be unable to tell exactly what was news and what was made up, they made some points through exaggerations and some through the use of actual news footage.[8] They recruited two children, one from San Diego, California, and one from Albany, New York, to showcase the modified toys to the news. Additionally, the BLO used their extra stock of modified dolls to go to stores that were near news stations that were covering the story, planted a modified doll on the shelf, and waited for the journalists to purchase the BLO's toy; this would show the reach and a seemingly large scale operation.[9] Having children already prepped to be interviewed and planning ahead to gain media coverage helped the BLO's image and reach.
The media responded with coverage,[10] but no legal issues were ever seriously raised. Hasbro and Mattel, the makers of the dolls brushed off the action with little fuss, although one person was outraged with the "terrorist attacks" directed at children.[11]
Controversy
Because of the nature of culture jamming, it is hard to tell how many Barbies and G.I. Joes were actually switched, and how much of the media attention was orchestrated by the group. The artist Igor Vamos, known for acts of media intervention, intentionally fed information to the media to report more cases of the switched identity surgeries. Although most sources suggest from 300–500 toys were hacked, other reports up to 3,000 across the country and in other countries like Canada, France and England. Others assert that only 12 toys were actually switched and the rest was cleverly arranged media hype by Vamos and his associates. This perspective indicates that the project was also a critique of the nature of the television and media culture of the 1990s, which led to other media interventions by Vamos, collaborators, and other groups in the coming years.[5]>[12]
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They came, they went. Did they do any real damage? You might feel that they did.
RTMark ex Wiki
RTMark /ˈɑːrtmɑːrk/ (stylized as ®™ark) is an anti-consumerist activist collective, whose stated aim is to subvert the "Corporate Shield" that "protects" American corporations. The name is derived from "Registered Trademark".RTMark is itself a registered corporation which brings together activists who plan projects with donors who fund them. It thus operates outside the laws governing human individuals, and benefits from the much looser laws governing corporations.[citation needed]
RTMark claimed as its first prank the "Barbie Liberation Organization", in which the voiceboxes of talking Barbie and G.I. Joe toys were swapped, and the toys then returned to the store (1993). The first prank documentable as being truly RTMark-sponsored was the SimCopter "hack" (1996), carried out by founding member Jacques Servin.[citation needed]
Other RTMark stunts were gwbush.com (a faked campaign Website for George W. Bush). They were also involved in the toywar and they brokered a deal so James Baumgartner, the original inventor of voteauction[1] could sell the raw project to UBERMORGEN in Austria.
The group's website was part of the Whitney Biennial in 2000.[2]