art not ads

One of the most frequent comments people make when they read this website or discuss the topic of advertising, is that advertising isn’t a new invention, it’s been around for a long time. Consequently, it seems that advertising is a perfectly normal feature of our landscapes, and has been for generations. Which begs the question, why are Art Not Ads so upset about it?
This perspective is naive, and it’s a shame to see people who go about their world so unquestioningly. This picture, from Paleo-Future Blog shows the Statue of Liberty decked in advertising devices (discovered at Murketing). It dates from 1885, demonstrating that in fact advertising has had detractors for a long, long time - at least 120 years, and probably back as far as its origins. Advertising’s longevity doesn’t relate to popularity or acceptance. Its persistence doesn’t justify its continuation.

It’s just as true to say that advertising has been intrusive and irritating for many generations.

A story at Murketing points to an article in the New York Times, telling the inspiring tale of illustrator Linzie Hunter. She gets a lot of spam emails, like the rest of us. One day Linzie decided to use the text from these emails to create samples of her hand-lettering illustration work. She created a Flickr photoset of these illustrations, and suddenly found “fame” through mentions at BoingBoing and similar websites.

At least, that’s what this article in the newspaper Transit Toronto suggests. One interesting point made is that the revenue generated from advertising on Toronto public transport is minimal. Consequently the increase in fares, should the advertising be completely withdrawn, would be minimal too. And the public would potentially be far happier with their surroundings. In fact, it’s possible that by replacing the ads with art, the buses, trams and trains would attract more customers - off-setting the lost revenue from removing the advertising.

Thanks again, Andy!

Lots of lovely stuff happening out there at the moment. Clicking a few links on the internets today turned up all this booty.

The New York Times reports that Steve Lambert, a “conceptual artist” (tee hee!) from the Anti-Advertising Agency, has created AddArt, a small piece of software for the Mozilla Firefox browser that replaces adverts with art imagery. (Via Stay Free Magazine.)

The Anti-Advertising Agency blog has a wonderful story, complete with photos, of fly-posters being arrested for placing Microsoft adverts illegally around Los Angeles. It’s good to see they also mention the Pixelator and David Lynch’s opinion of product-placement in films.

The Anti-Advertising Agency collaborates with the Samara Project, which aims to “call into question the purpose and effects of advertising in public space.”

Stay Free also has an article on “ad creep”, the pernicious race to cover all available surfaces with advertising.

The Other Paper has an article about a “sophisticated defacer of public property” named Vinchen.

Two weeks ago, the floor manager of the Hilton Columbus at Easton was strolling through the hotel when he noticed something strange. From a distance, it appeared that a new Hilton advertisement had been hung on the wall of the hotel’s conference room. Everything about the picture projected dignity and sophistication: the Hilton insignia, the Hilton colors, even the Hilton lettering. Everything, that is, except the Hilton daughter. In the right half of the poster, a tipsy-looking Paris Hilton appeared bare-breasted. The text accompanying her image read: “For over 80 years the Hilton name has been synonymous with elegance and class.” Then, in large letters: “A tradition that continues today.”

A little “Banksy” perhaps, but top work.

Oh my word, now this is just gorgeous:

http://www.jasoneppink.com/pixelator/

“Pixelator turns those ugly, blinding video billboard ads into art”. It certainly does.

The last word in street-chic, someone has created printable coldsores. Download the delightful graphics, print them onto sticky labels, and apply to the glamorous model in your favourite advert.

More genius from the wonderful Ji Lee who brought us the Bubble Project. This time, abstractor.tv demonstrates how to turn a TV or “video billboard” (something that is increasingly pervasive in the UK) into a work of art. Art Not Ads, activist-stylee. Luv it.

What a great idea. Print out a load of cartoon speech-bubbles, and stick them onto posters, allowing anyone to write whatever they feel in the inviting blank space. The Bubble Project .

The good people over at the Toronto Public Space Committee have kindly added a link to us on their links page. These guys are the bomb, in their own words they’re “dedicated to celebrating our shared common spaces, and protecting them from political erosion, commercial influence and privatization”. What a great idea, we could do with something similar over here. Check them out and be inspired. It’s great to see that people around the world feel as strongly as we do about our public spaces, and are getting involved in protecting them.