Rachel Baker
«TM Clubcard»

«TM Clubcard» (1997) was a ‹para-site,› which Baker set up on the Web to mimic and comment on corporate loyalty card programs, such as the Tesco Clubcard, which was put out in 1995 by the major UK supermarket chain. Baker offered participants who registered online a «TM» clubcard, which «contained direct lifts of logos and layouts from the real Tesco Plc.» Users would input their PIN on «TM Clubcard» sites, to earn reward points and be tracked in Baker's database. Tesco's lawyers eventually forced the shutdown of the site, and subsequent versions of it were similarly shutdown. By mimicking corporate processes, «TM Clubcard» created a fuller understanding of how a participatory relationship with a corporation is also panoptic and how, moreover, corporations will go to extreme lengths to protect their ongoing privatization of the public sphere.