In his journal article regarding online activism, Dennis Allen (2003) talks about a "meme warfare" in which users, through memes attempt to counter commercial images and ideas. The "metameme" as described by Allen works to reposition the perception of the corporate world and sparks a larger critique of corporate culture. For instance, current affairs or events can incite the creation of an internet meme, which in turn forms conversation for those who access and share it. Movies or television shows for example, often invoke conversations between people and many of them are expressing themselves through memetic activity. Using the movie franchise Twilight as an example, the release of the movies has prompted a host of internet memes which predominately mocks everything that is associated with the films such as the storyline, characters and its fans. A popular template for Twilight memes features the caption "Still a better love then Twilight".
The meme mocks the storyline of the movies and at the same time promotes resistance against the commercial strategies of media producers.
Similar trends is also evident in the world of basketball in which fans are spawning memes in real-time fashion , prompted by match or player incidents. These affairs can vary from the most shocking to the most comical and often the messages conveyed through memes goes against a player's star image or the sport's commercial strategies. A prime example of this are memes concerning Kobe Bryant and Lebron James where much of the messages in the memes portray them as selfish individuals, rather then great players of the game, or memes regarding Brian Scalabrine that portray him as a great basketball talent, who in the real-world is a fringe player, at best.
Another example, New York Knicks point guard Jason Kidd was arrested on drink-driving charges after crashing his vehicle. Kidd, who is considered as one of the greatest players of the modern era, for his selfless style of play, is highly respected among the basketball community. Fans and pundits alike widely perceive him as a role model who upholds all the mythical ideologies associated with sports such as fair play and sportsmanship. Media exposure ensured that many basketball fans quickly became familiar with reports of Kidd's arrest. Kidd's image rapidly became a symbol for fans to mock. In short amount of time, there have been many variations of the meme, where people expressed their opinions about the incident. Whether or not the meme becomes successful is essentially secondary when it comes to measuring the cultural influence of memes. The immediacy of convergent media allow fans to circulate their thoughts as soon as stories are reported and their memetic expressions can spread rapidly via social networks, allowing consensus to be formed which are at times contradictory to the visions of media officials. For instance, the Jason Kidd memes posted in this blog has spread throughout the internet where it has the potential to challenge his heroic star image, which can lead to further ramifications such as tarnishing the commercial image of the player, the team, the league and possibly the sport in general.
Most likely, these Jason Kidd memes will remain within the spheres of basketball fan communities, but the significant point is that, fans were willing to invest their time and effort to craft memes about the incident, further demonstrating the cultural phenomenon of memes, as a creative and yet powerful way of expression.
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