The Anti-Advertising Agency » jordan

Public Ad Campaign’s Recent Five

jordan — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:33:43 +0000

With a wave of business closures in New York, store fronts are being converted over to street level billboards with little regard for New York City’s sign laws. In these tough economic times it seems cheap adhesive vinyl and corporate crime lose to city permits and legal billboards in the corporate cost-benefit analysis. While they make a buck, we can “take a field trip to the peanutarium.”
Using striking visual imagery to relate to our environment, question our social and political agendas through serendipitous moments, and ambiguous gestures, such as those of artist Shepard Fairey, are old hat. What we need from our street artists are active political gestures which shape thinking and disseminate ideas, as opposed to create confusion in hopes of shaking things up. Do you agree?
Jenifer Jacobs has fun at CBS’s expense and maybe you should too. She says, “My art is an effort to take responsibility for the effects of my exposure to popular media and provide an insightful and personal response.” Amazing, most of us just let it wash over us like a cool breeze.
Illegal billboards are everywhere but it’s always fun to catch them when they are feeling out new teritory. Brooklyn isnt as popular as Manhattan but in this economy, companies are scoping out some new spots across the river.
I love how building owners and outdoor advertising companies feign ignorance of both the penalties and the laws regarding outdoor advertising signage. Perhaps this $955,000 fine might help educate the industry, or bettter, eventually drive them all out of business.

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Public Ad Campaign’s Recent Five

jordan — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:40:01 +0000

Tough economic times call for inventive new ways to use the city, and outdoor advertising is never one to shy away from trying new things, even if they are illegal. Here’s one new form of visual intrusion trying to make its illegal mark on our city.
How do you figure out how many illegal billboards are operating in your city? You go out and count them. LA city residents are taking to the streets and taking inventory of the illegal signage choking their city. It’s a bold move for a community trying to aid their city against the onslaught of legal brouhaha being cooked up by the billboard industry.
With the recent drop of Ji Lee’s book, “Talk Back: The Bubble Project” I stumbled upon the manifesto describing his entire project. Its well worth as it is a very concise argument for open participation in our public discourse. Plus Mr. Lee has pulled off the only public advertising campaign I have ever condoned!
There’s nothing new about creating different and more interactive advertising content to catch the fleeting attentions of the average viewer. What is new is are the recent reworkings of time tested two dimensional advertising locations in NYC. It seems advertisers are realizing that it’s the quality of the connection that entices the audience, not necessarily the novelty of completely new venues and forms.
Sometimes a street work will remind you of why public interaction with public space is absolutely necessary creating dialogue and participation where before there was a cleanliness devoid of persona. Other times you find a single piece which does this same thing while covering advertising and fighting the obstacles which hinder our ability to carry out such interactions, and its so sweet.

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Public Ad Campaign’s Recent Five

jordan — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:45:03 +0000

1-Does anyone care who Henry Matyjewicz is? I don’t. Why the PosterBoy revolution isn’t about superheroes that look like James Dean.

2-It’s better to get up than not, Shepard Fairey does it legally but with spectacular effect.

3-SCRUB wants you to know how the Newsstand Association of Philadelphia is trying to alter the city streets, and what floodgates might open if they succeed.

4-“I’m not trying to make an argument that graffiti is art and not vandalism,” Professor Snyder said in a phone interview. “I hope I’ve made it clear that it’s both.” Snyder’s recent book, Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York’s Urban Underground, should help to explain why.

5-Alsachery explains the motivations behind the Saint Valentines project for Public Ad Campaign.

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PublicAdCampaign’s Recent Five

jordan — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:00:09 +0000

Introducing our newest contributor, Jordan Seiler! Jordan usually writes over at Public Ad Campaign and is a primary driver behind an AAA associated project, illegalbillboards.org. Jordan is known for his unabashed position on reclaiming advertising space for art. He not only calls for civil disobedience, but follows through in his own actions. For the past few months Jordan’s site has been must-read material. Rather than repost it all here, I asked Jordan to give the readers of the AAA periodic updates of what he’s writing about, looking at, and working on. Welcome Jordan! –Steve Lambert

1-By producing a piece of illegal art in front of students, I hope to give them both the tools and the confidence to be able to go out and re-imagine the public environment they live in on their own terms. [LINK]

Winter Weave-Easter

2-Are outdoor advertisement companies paying for your protection? They’d like you to think so. Find out what London is up to and how it’s strikingly similar to New York. [LINK]

3-If Fire safety doesn’t warrant supergraphic removal, what does? LA’s ongoing battle with outdoor signage has reached new heights. [LINK]

More at Ban Billboard Blight

4-A valentine greeting you can’t buy. These are the kind of uplifting and personal messages you get instead of advertising when you allow the public access to its visual environment on all levels. [LINK]

5-Why can’t we be on Brian Lehrer Live? Cause we’re vandals. When CUNY can’t entertain socially minded civil disobedience, something is broken. [LINK]

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