Franco Berardi and Lorenza Pignatti's Book on Adbusters

Franco Berardi, known as Bifo, and Lorenza Pignatti have co-authored 'Adbusters: Ironia e distopia dell’attivismo visuale', published by Meltemi in 2020. The book examines the Canadian magazine Adbusters, founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver. Adbusters, a blend of 'advertising' and 'busting', critiques advertising and media ecology, promoting culture jamming and détournement. The magazine gained prominence during the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle and the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement, which it helped launch with a poster by Arturo Di Modica. The book includes interviews with Lasn and traces Adbusters' lineage from Dada and Situationism to contemporary meme culture. Berardi and Pignatti argue that advertising functions as propaganda and brainwashing, and that Adbusters aims to reclaim mental freedom through visual activism.