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News

Classic KAWS Footage From 1997

May 13, 2008

I remember seeing KAWS work in San Francisco when I was temping in downtown office buildings. It was a black and white ad for something in a Market Street kiosk and there was a green, multi headed snake attacking the model in the photo. I remember studying it trying to figure out if it was an actual campaign or if someone had broken into it. And if they had, why would they do that? For me this was pre-internet, pre-art education, pre-public work. I was a 21 (?) year old college and high school drop out with a shitty office job and half an eye open. And this work was one of the many, many, many, many, many, many things that came out of the Bay Area that expanded my idea of what was possible in the world.

via Wooster

By Steve Lambert | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

How Valuable Is Our Public Space?

May 12, 2008

How valuable is our public space to advertisers and marketers? An anonymous agent of the Anti-Advertising Agency made some calls. How much does it currently costs to have street level ads in a city like San Francisco? Here’s some examples.

Market Street Kiosks.
Background: Three sided containing four by six foot poster advertisements. Introduced to San Francisco on the condition that one of the three sides is used for art – handled by the San Francisco Art Commission. Interestingly, advertisers are only interested in the 2 sides that face car traffic.
Cost: between $1367 and $1473 per panel. But with a 16 panel minimum cost ranges from $21,866 to $23,562. This does not include production which could easily be thousands more.

from animalvegetable on flickrWildposting
Background: While seen pasted all over San Francisco’s construction sites, these two by three foot posters are displayed without permits and are illegal. Regardless of the law, the less scrupulous can still pay to have them made and pasted up. Because one hires a contractor, it’s possible to argue plausible deniability if one ever were caught. But most likely that wont happen because the law is so poorly enforced. (Conversely, throw up some graffiti on a wall and see what happens…)
Cost: For a week of wildposting you can get 40-60 posters. Cost (including production) is about $4,250.

Other Factors: Campaign design, testing, and evaluation costs not included. Advertising expenses are tax deductible.

By Steve Lambert | Also posted in Reference Library | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Testify!: AAAFFF Testimonials From Real (and Former!) Ad Pros

May 9, 2008

I’ll plan to update these regularly, but for now, here are just a few of the comments that have come across my desk at the AAAFFF since taking over the ED position:

“I have worked for the past 4 years (since I graduated from a very prestigious culinary school) doing R&D for a food manufacturer . . . Boy, throwing away 5,000 pre-packaged hamburger buns when they don’t get used is even more egregious when you wake up to CNN telling you that people are rioting in Haiti and Egypt because they can’t afford a loaf of bread. Poor people are so silly. I’m all ready to quit my job so that I can devote my time to the theatre which is my true love . . .” .” —Midwestern Ad Man

“Today, after my job, I was walking to my apartment and felt sad, because, after a good weekend, my work today was a #%$# (censured). It’s not life to live, 10 hours and only business, business. Some people want to sell agriculture machines and technology and I spend my time on it?” —Brasilia Ad Man

“Throughout my studies I’ve found myself questioning if advertising is the right industry for me. I’m in love with the creative process, but not as interested in the products it’s being centered around.”—New York Ad Woman

“[The AAAFFF is] enough to make me wish I could leave advertising all over again. . . . I left advertising, but I never got a GIANT NOVELTY CHECK! I didn’t even get a normal-sized severance package. I guess I did get a pretty nice unemployment income for a while. Advertising is inherently evil, though, I am glad I am not doing that anymore. It is better to starve righteously.” —Minneapolis Painter

“We’ve seen your website at http://antiadvertisingagency.com/projects/foundation-for-freedom and we love it! We see that your traffic rank is 602777 and your link popularity is 26. Also, you have been online since 19/06/2004. With that kind of traffic, we will pay you up to $4,800/month to advertise our links on your website. If you’re interested, read our terms from this page: [website deleted for privacy concerns].” — Internet Ad Man

By Anne Elizabeth Moore | Also posted in Foundation For Freedom | Tagged , , | Comments (3)

Listening Post: MySpace Play Count Inflaters - The Steroids of the Music Industry

From AAA pal, Eliot Van Buskirk at Listening Post:

Approximately two weeks after we reported on TuneBoom Pro, a tool apparently used by major labels and indie artists to artificially inflate the number of times their songs had been streamed on MySpace, the site has gone offline. We had contacted MySpace about TuneBoom Pro, but it’s unclear whether MySpace had anything to do with the site’s disappearance.

One way or another, the site is offline. However, bands and labels looking for a way to fake MySpace popularity have plenty of other ways to manipulate their play counts on MySpace Music. A reader recently sent in a list of 46 alternatives to the possibly defunct TuneBoom Pro service.

Is it wrong to inflate MySpace song plays? If every other band and label is doing it, you almost have to — just like baseball players and steroids. It’s unlikely that MySpace will be able to defeat every type of play count-increasing technology, just like it’s unlikely that Major League Baseball will ever be able to do away completely with all performance-enhancing drugs.

Read the rest… MySpace Play Count Inflaters: The Steroids of the Music Industry | Listening Post from Wired.com

By Steve Lambert | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

GRL Movie: Torrent It.

May 8, 2008

Excerpts of the Graffiti Research Lab - The Complete First Season on BoingBoingTV:

This five minute excerpt has ads, but you can get the whole DVD - with no ads - as a torrent - start here.

Not sure? Here’s a well written review of the movie from Kevin Flanagan of the P2P Foundation:

My computer finished downloading the Graffiti Research Lab Movie Sunday morning. I stuck it on for a quick look and ended up watching the whole thing. The film is a testament to the cultural value of the hacker ethic and a free and open source approach in cultural production. GRL are an art group dedicated to outfitting graffiti writers, artists and protesters with open source technologies for urban communication. After quiting their ‘proper jobs’ Evan Roth and James Powderly founded The Graffiti Research Lab while working together at the Eyebeam OpenLab.

Continue reading →

By Steve Lambert | Tagged , | Comments (0)

AAAFFF up 35% in first 2 weeks

May 7, 2008

Scrappy artists, students, and regular folk open wallets to reach out to ad pros

CHICAGO—Only 2 weeks after the Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation For Freedom announced its new giving campaign, donations have come in from all over the country, raising the pot offered to one lucky creative to $670—and she or he will still receive a giant check!

The 2008 Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation For Freedom Award (AAAFFFA), designed to oust advertising, marketing, and PR creatives from their careers, received a healthy boost from young artists, activists, and everyday people in New York, Chicago, and Columbus, Ohio eager to help the organization in the mission to decrease commercialization of public space, human relationships, journalism and art by removing a single individual from an industry that directly supports these goals.

“We call it ‘reverse robin-hooding’,” AAAFFF Executive Director Anne Elizabeth Moore explains. “We’re not stealing, we’re asking. Also, in a way, I guess we’re giving to the rich instead of the poor. But we’re doing it for the right reasons.”

Steve Lambert, CEO of the AAA, agrees. “This display of generosity is just the first step. More valuable than the money we’re giving one marketing professional is the donation they’re giving us; by leaving advertising and working for the common good.” The AAAFFF also accepts non-financial donations.

College students have been moved to donate by the AAAFFF’s accepting applications from fellow students changing majors from advertising, marketing, or public relation to social services, art, journalism, creative writing or similar endeavors. “This award can make a substantial difference for a college student,” Moore explains, “helping to pay for additional classes to complete a new major and the extra text books required. We’re here to make a real difference.”

An upcoming “testimonials” section of the AAA site will help inform students who currently believe marketing is a glamorous world of cash and creativity and provide them with gritty, real-life stories from jaded professionals in the industry.

“We thought advertisers themselves would be all over this. It’s the perfect way to oust a hated adversary and better the chances of total ad-world domination,” Lambert states. “Who knew regular people hated advertising this much?”

Application forms are available now at the Anti-Advertising Agency’s website, and must be typed and postmarked September 1, 2008. Students are urged to plan ahead, and prepare their paperwork over the summer.

# # #

The mission of the Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation For Freedom is to bring the best and brightest former ad pros together once a year; inspire young people to leave the craft; focus the industry and public at large on the profoundly negative social justice impacts of advertising; inspire problem-solving methods focused on the most important issues facing the real world; and shine a light on the influence the advertising, media, and marketing industries has on dwindling public space, atrophying human relationships, and the destruction of democracy.

Donate to AAAFFF online via PayPal. Please be sure to specify “Anti-Advertising Agency” as the item. Thanks!

The Anti-Advertising Agency is fiscally sponsored by The Lab. The Lab is a project of The Art Re Grup, Inc., a non-profit organization operating within the meaning of section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions and in-kind donations are fully tax-deductible within the parameters established by current tax law.

By Steve Lambert | Also posted in Agency Projects, Foundation For Freedom | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Anarchy: The Videogame

May 2, 2008

I know I said that posting would be sparse if at all while I was doing my residency at AS220 but, you know, this picture from a park in Barcelona came across my virtual desk courtesy the brilliant Matt Malooly in Chicago and I had to share its deeply conflictual messages with you. As you gaze upon it, you may enjoy pondering the questions: Who created this? What are they trying to say? How well were they paid? And is it extra awesome or just fucked up that, clearly, none of those dudes are anarchists?

My argument is old, but bears repeating here: that if this is your mode of activism, you need a new mode, and if this your mode of marketing, then please cut it out. But this image offers so few clues as to what is being said, it’s almost nothing but a funny brand mention of the kind I discuss extensively in Unmarketable. See the original here, with the Spanish version of the caption, “the motto of the new generation?”

By Anne Elizabeth Moore | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Billboard: All Religions Are Fairy Tales

May 1, 2008

Found in the bottom of my inbox; this story from WFTV in Florida. Read all the way through to see my favorite part…

Business Owners, Customers Upset Over Controversial Billboard

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — It looked harmless enough, but the words on a billboard unnerved so many people that a popular restaurant nearby actually lost business. The billboard was on Colonial Drive near Old Cheney Highway.

Although the popular Straub’s Seafood restaurant often advertises on it, it wasn’t their billboard. The sign was taken down after Channel 9 started asking questions.

The billboard came down around 4:00 Friday afternoon and nearby business owners are relieved. Straub’s Restaurant can replace the sign with the night’s specials.

At first glance, the sign looked like a children’s cartoon, but the message next to the fairy princess stirred emotions.

“When you condemn all religions and say they are a fairytale, that is wrong,” said Rich Stormes, a nearby business owner. The billboard went up a week before Easter and business at the restaurant went down. Continue reading →

By Steve Lambert | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

GRL at MoMA on Sunday

April 30, 2008

Anti-Advertising Agency associates, the Graffiti Research Lab (who worked on the AAA Light Criticism project) will be at the MoMA in nyc on Sunday. I’ll be on an all-star panel with them and other fine folks after the screening. See you there…


G.R.L. The Complee7 First Season (Trailer) from fi5e on Vimeo.

GRL: The Complete First Season screens this Sunday, May 4th @ 8PM at the MoMA. After the flick, talk with artists featured in the film, including Mark Jenkins, Leon Reid, Steve Lambert, the GRL and special guests + party to the music of Javelin.

Get your tickets here!

– Download the torrent of the unofficial DVD here.
– For more GRL @ the MoMA with NYC’s finest look here, leap there or go thither.

By Steve Lambert | Tagged , | Comments (0)

BLF Escape; Publish Book!

April 29, 2008

Our pals at San Francisco’s Billboard Liberation Front, feeling the heat after their recent ATT/NSA campaign, “decided to temporarily relocate to safehouses on the European continent.” While hiding out they spoke at The Game is Up! in Ghent Belgium and distributed one of their many valuable texts.

The new PDF of their The Art & Science of Billboard Improvement is free to download now.

To whet your appetite for more knowledge, I’ll post the introduction below:

Look up!

Billboards have become as ubiquitous as human suffering, as difficult to ignore as a beggar’s outstretched fist. Every time you leave your couch or cubicle, momentarily severing the electronic umbilicus, you enter the realm of their impressions. Larger than life, subtle as war, they assault your senses with a complex coda of commercial instructions, the messenger RNA of capitalism. Every time you get in a car, or ride a bus, or witness a sporting event, you receive their instructions. You can’t run and you can’t hide, because your getaway route is lined to the horizon with signs, and your hidey-hole has a panoramic view of an 8-sheet poster panel.

There are a million stories in the Big City, and as many reasons to want to hack a billboard. We have our reasons, and we don’t presume to judge yours. In this manual, we have made a conscious effort to steer clear of ideology and stick to methodology. The procedures outlined here are based on our 20+ years’ experience executing billboard improvements professionally, safely, and (knock wood) without injury or arrest. In most cases, is should not be necessary to follow the elaborate, even obsessive precautions we outline here. A can of spray paint, a blithe spirit, and a balmy night are all you really need.

Blank DeCoverly
BLF Minister of Propaganda

from: The Art & Science of Billboard Improvement

By Steve Lambert | Also posted in Reference Library | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Unmarketable in Columbus and Chicago: featuring the AAAFFF and Pamela Anderson in a bikini

April 25, 2008

Hey! I’m doin’ some stuff!

Friday April 25, 6 pm: Wexner Center, 15th and High St., Columbus OH Unmarketable reading and 2008 AAAFFFA application drive (see reviews below)

Friday April 25, 8 pm: Sporeprint Infoshop, 172 E 5th Avenue, Columbus, OH Unmarketable slide talk featuring Pamela Anderson (see reviews below)

Sunday April 27, 7 pm: New World Resource Center, 1300 North Western Ave., Chicago, IL Unmarketable reading (see reviews below)

Review Excerpts
“Distinctly more radical than merely protesting against consumerism: [Unmarketable offers] a total rejection of the competitive ethos that drives capitalist culture.” —LA Times

“Sharp and valuable muckraking.” —Time Out New York

“What sells [this event] is the opportunity to see Pamela Anderson without her clothes . . . a lot.” —IMDB

By Anne Elizabeth Moore | Also posted in Foundation For Freedom | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

True Colors

Throughout the media circus that is our election season, few have thought to query: but what do the Dutch think? Luckily, Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei and Jonas Staal have been in residence at InCUBATE here in Chicago working steadily on The Barack Obama Project. Their work hones in on the marketing of racial identity as a key aspect of this election season. It’s a significant, if usually unaddressed issue, as evidenced by this statement by Obama’s senior political adviser David Axelrod on the cover of the New York Times yesterday: “I think there is a general inclination on the part of the older voters to vote for what is more familiar . . . Here’s a guy named Barack Obama, an African-American guy, relatively new. That’s a lot of change.”

I first heard about the project a few weeks ago, when it raised an interesting debate about skin tone and the medium of photography. Staal and van Gerven Oei presented their findings on these and other issues last night at the Congress Theater, but took a quick moment first to answer a few questions. Continue reading →

By Anne Elizabeth Moore | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Steve Lambert in Gelf Mag

April 21, 2008

In the buildup to the undoubtedly massively successful “Non-Motivational Speakers” series at Happy Endings on Thursday, Gelf Magazine has published interviews with Alan Abel, Ron English, and me.

Here’s a small excerpt:

GM: In utopia, what does the advertising look like?

SL: I mean, do we need it? If a good product exists, we’ll know about it. That’s supposedly the thing about capitalism: You make a better product and it rises to the top. What I think is interesting is that advertising sort of messes with that, so the thing doesn’t make it on its merits. The product doesn’t make it on its merits, it makes it because of its campaign. If you or I were to make a better iPod, how would people find out about that if we can’t compete with [Apple's] advertising?

Read the rest at Gelf.

By Steve Lambert | Comments (0)

Official Foundation for Freedom Press Release

April 18, 2008

Contact: Anne Elizabeth Moore – aem at anneelizabethmoore.com
Steve Lambert – steve at antiadvertisingagency.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 17, 2008

ANNOUNCING THE 2008 ANTI-ADVERTISING AGENCY FOUNDATION FOR FREEDOM AWARD

Fund Offers One Lucky Ad Industry Creative Freedom, Giant Check

CHICAGO—The most creative and forward-thinking professionals of our time work in marketing. The Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation For Freedom wants them to quit. And they’re offering cash.

This morning the Anti-Advertising Agency’s new charitable arm, the Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation For Freedom, announced its first funding program, designed to oust advertising, marketing, and PR creatives from their careers. The 2008 Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation For Freedom Award (AAAFFFA) aims to respond to the increasing commercialization of public space, human relationships, journalism and art by decreasing the number of individuals working in industries that directly support these goals. “Getting these talented people out of advertising and working on real problems is so exciting!” states Steve Lambert, CEO of the AAA.

The fund is seeded with hard-earned cash from creative endeavors, donated by Lambert and AAAFFF Executive Director Anne Elizabeth Moore, who will also judge the applications. The vast numbers of ad industry creatives who regularly express hatred toward their own jobs is expected to bring in thousands of submissions. “So many ad industry types hate what they do. I wish we could help them all,” Moore states.

Offering a cash incentive to join the unprofitable creative industries was a difficult decision to come to, Lambert and Moore agree. As artists themselves, funding such an endeavor wasn’t a financially rational decision. Still, the AAAFFF hopes to inspire others to behave in a similarly financially irrational manner—for the common good. “Anyway,” Moore explains, “after several intensive focus groups, we found that the target audience for this campaign is motivated first and foremost by personal gain.”

Further donations—financial and non-financial—are encouraged and accepted.

Application forms are available now at the Anti-Advertising Agency’s website, and must be typed and postmarked September 1, 2008.

One lucky creative will be awarded all accrued funds, assistance in achieving future career goals, freedom, and a giant prize check. The winner will be honored at a special reception to be held during Advertising Week in lovely New York City. All applicants will be invited to attend.

“Unfortunately we won’t reach everyone. Many marketers have grown dependent on exorbitant salaries and undemanding work days and can’t conceive of a moving to a lower tax bracket—no matter how liberating,” Lambert laments.

# # #

By Steve Lambert | Also posted in Agency Projects, Foundation For Freedom | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

Steve Lambert on NPR

April 17, 2008

I stopped in to NPR’s Bryant Park Project this morning to talk about our “You Don’t Need It” stickers. You can listen to the segment through a stream on NPR’s site.

By Steve Lambert | Comments (0)