culture-jack

English

Alternative forms

• culturejack

Etymology

Blend of culture +‎ hijack

Verb

culture-jack (third-person singular simple present culture-jacks, present participle culture-jacking, simple past and past participle culture-jacked)

1. To appropriate aspects of popular culture for commercial purposes.
   • 2013 June 14, Michele Cuthbert, “Funny Or Why? 5 Ways Your Brand Can Culture-Jack The Right Way”, in Fast Company:

     We advise not to culture-jack a natural disaster or some national tragedy.

   • 2015, Matthew Britton, YouthNation: Building Remarkable Brands in a Youth-Driven Culture, →ISBN, page 160:

     With Oreo commenting on subjects from Gay Pride to the Mars Rover landing, this campaign not only captured the attention and acclaim of both consumers and the media but also laid the groundwork for the brand's culture-jacking of the Super Bowl.

   • 2016, Maryemma Graham, Wilfried Raussert, Mobile and Entangled America(s), →ISBN:

     In Alleyne's (2000) work on cultural dilution in reggae, whose core elements Alleyne views as having undergone "commercially-motivated dilution” (19), the term is used in the sense of culture-jacking to the extent that practices can be hijacked or misappropriated, when groups of performers who are not dyed-in-the-wool reggae artists seize control of the commercial promotion of the art form and take it in alternate directions to attract new audiences.

   • 2017, Ganesh Shermon, The Intellectual Company - Beyond Wisdom, →ISBN, page 459:

     The tactic of culture-jacking (also, news jacking) can be employed to personify a brand as current, topical and in tune with the times.