Kalle Lasn “did not invent the anger” behind the Occupy Wall Street protests, said William Yardley in The New York Times. “But he did brand it.” The founder and editor of the anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters has spent “much of his career skewering corporate America.” As a former market researcher, he knows the value of messaging, but he didn’t imagine that the Twitter hashtag he helped create in July—#OccupyWallStreet—would trigger a global movement. “This is what Adbusters has done for the past 20 years,” he says. “To come up with these memes and to propagate them.”
The 69-year-old Estonian-born Canadian, who lives on a farm outside Vancouver, can’t remember whether he or a colleague first came up with the idea of an encampment in lower Manhattan, said Mattathias Schwartz in The New Yorker. But this year’s Egyptian protests inspired Adbusters to write in June that “America needs its own Tahrir.” Lasn encouraged the campers in Zuccotti Park to zero in on a clear message, just as the protesters in Cairo had done, and was disappointed when no single demand materialized. But he sees more “opportunity than defeat” in the protesters’ eviction from Zuccotti. “The chessboard has been overturned,” Lasn says, “and now a new game begins!”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Ottawa climate talks: can global plastic problem be solved?In the spotlight Nations aim to draft world's first treaty on plastic pollution, but resistance from oil- and gas-producing countries could limit scope
-
Netherlands split on WFH for sex workersSpeed Read Councils concerned over 'nuisance' of at-home sex work, but others say changes will curb underground sex trade
-
'He adored Trump, and then rejected him'Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
-
Issue of the week: Yahoo’s ban on working from homefeature There’s a “painful irony” in Yahoo’s decision to make all its employees come to the office to work.
-
Issue of the week: Another big airline merger
feature The merger of American Airlines and US Airways will be the fourth between major U.S. airlines in five years.
-
Issue of the week: Feds’ fraud suit against S&P
feature The Justice Department charged S&P with defrauding investors by issuing mortgage security ratings it knew to be misleading.
-
Issue of the week: Why investors are worried about Apple
feature Some investors worry that the company lacks the “passion and innovation that made it so extraordinary for so long.”
-
Issue of the week: Does Google play fair?
feature The Federal Trade Commission cleared Google of accusations that it skews search results to its favor.
-
Issue of the week: The Fed targets unemployment
feature By making public its desire to lower unemployment, the Fed hopes to inspire investors “to behave in ways that help bring that about.”
-
Issue of the week: Is Apple coming home?
feature Apple's CEO said the company would spend $100 million next year to produce a Mac model in the U.S.
-
Issue of the week: Gunning for a hedge fund mogul
feature The feds are finally closing in on legendary hedge fund boss Steven Cohen.