ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the appropriation of “manual labor” for commercial purposes; analyzes how brands use media to create myths of working-class identity; and argues that critical artistic interventions can reclaim meaning by undermining brands’ hollow rhetoric. The chapter focuses on the relationship between Best Made Co., an “outdoor lifestyle” brand that markets and sells US$350 designer axes, and Re Made Co., an interventionist artwork that the author has developed, which substitutes Best Made’s axe with a UDS$350 toilet plunger. Re Made’s sustained and evolving parody satirizes Best Made’s marketing campaign through social media, design, video, and photography, and reveals how Best Made hijacks “labor” from the realm of manual work by transforming tools into objects of consumption for an affluent, white-collar consumer base. The Re Made Co. artwork uses critical design to pose questions, such as: What are the implications of transforming a useful tool into a symbolic object? How can parafiction and tactical media put consumer culture in crisis, thereby agitating consumers into critiquing brand narratives? Through analysis and critique of the dual Best Made/Re Made marketing campaigns, this chapter reveals the consequences of media-based narratives and proposes critical strategies for reassigning value.
