Tag Archives: billboard

3 ton sign falls onto Broadway, N.Y. (1912)

By Steve Lambert | Published: July 1, 2009

Just found this amazing image while doing some research.  Another reason why the Department of Buildings regulates billboards. Flickr Photo Download: 3 Ton Electric Sign Blown into Brdway, N.Y. (LOC).  Another angle.

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L.A. Weekly Reporter Wins Top Press Club Award For Investigative Article on Billboards

By Steve Lambert | Published: June 25, 2009

Congratulations to Christine Pelisek, whose L.A. Weekly article, “Billboards Gone Wild,” won this year’s L.A. Press Club Award for best hard news story in newspapers of more than 100,000 circulation. This article that focused on the woeful job the city has done controlling illegal billboards brought the issue to widespread public attention for the first [...]

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NYT vs. SF Examiner on illegal storefront billboards

By Steve Lambert | Published: May 21, 2009

Why is the San Francisco Examiner doing a better job of reporting on illegal advertising than the New York Times? Less than 10 days ago the Times published a story on billboards appearing on vacant storefronts. It almost reads like an ad itself: Taking advantage of all the abandoned retail spaces in urban areas, marketers [...]

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Paintballed Billboards

By Steve Lambert | Published: May 19, 2009

It’s a shame the billboards were blank… Prague’s street art collective EPOS 257 recently converted some blank billboards into abstract art with the help of a few paintball guns. They write: Shooting into the white surface of vacant billboards with a paintball gun – blank canvasses in an urban environment, a gesture expressing an opinion [...]

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Report From The Billboard Jungle in Los Angeles (illegalbillboards.ca)

By Steve Lambert | Published: May 9, 2009

Protesters picket a billboard executive’s house in this KCET documentary on Los Angeles’ new signs by-law; but the funny part is when Mayor Villaraigosa, in what is not his best moment, asks volunteers for help in investigating illegal billboards and is laughed at by a town hall crowd. via illegalbillboards.ca and they have more coverage [...]

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Sign Industry: “The Law is interfering with my illegal income!!”

By Steve Lambert | Published: March 8, 2009

This is like the mafia complaining that law enforcement hurts their business… Sign companies claim billboard fines are crippling the ad industry BY Adam Lisberg DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF New York’s crackdown on oversized billboards is hurting the ad industry, as sign companies say inspectors are hitting them with huge fines for minor infractions. [...]

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PublicAdCampaign’s Recent Five

By jordan | Published: February 18, 2009

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 [...]

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In Paris, an anti-ad insurgency – Los Angeles Times

By Steve Lambert | Published: February 9, 2009

Reporting from Paris — Over the centuries, the French have cultivated the fine art of rebellion. The list of targets encompasses tyrants, wars, colonialism and, above all, capitalism in its many manifestations. The latest enemy may seem unlikely: billboards. The Dismantlers, as a nationwide group of anti-ad crusaders call themselves, aren’t violent or loud or [...]

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Billboard industry gums up anti-blight enforcement in S.F.

By Paul S. | Published: December 2, 2008

The city of San Francisco has been slowly working to enforce a 2002 city proposition which banned new billboards on private property. Of course, we all know city governments are notoriously cash-strapped. So it comes as no surprise that it was only in 2007 that the city had completed a survey of the existent billboards [...]

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In Florida, Billboards Trump Trees : NPR

By Steve Lambert | Published: September 10, 2008

excerpted from – In Florida, Billboards Trump Trees : NPR Highway 192 used to be exceptionally plain. It was lined by weed-filled ditches, with no sidewalks and poor lighting. It was drab. So the property owners voted to tax themselves $29 million to make the roadway safer and prettier. “Look at it today,” says Lizasuain. [...]

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No freedom of speech on billboards – even when you can pay.

By Steve Lambert | Published: September 5, 2008

Billboard Co. Says No to Soldier Portraits in St. Paul A billboard company has canceled its contract to display one of photographer Suzanne Opton’s portraits of active-duty soldiers on an outdoor space in St. Paul, Minnesota, site of the Republican National Convention. Opton, a New York-based photographer, shot her “Soldiers Faces” series at Fort Drum, [...]

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New York City’s Struggle to Take Down Illegal Billboards

By Steve Lambert | Published: August 25, 2008

from the Village Voice with IllegalBillboards.org‘s own Jordan Seiler. City government and citizen vigilantes wage a losing battle against Clear Channel and illegal ads By Elizabeth Dwoskin Over the past seven years, Jordan Seiler estimates that he’s taken down hundreds of billboards, posters, and other signs to replace advertising in public places with his own [...]

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You have got to be kidding

By Michael Mandiberg | Published: August 23, 2008

Okay, I’m going to come out and probably break with Anti Advertising Agency official policy, and say that I support ad-supported bike share programs. It is kind of making a deal with the devil, but the urban planning benefits have been demonstrated strongly. Getting cars out of the city, is worth the extra visual advertising. [...]

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Orbitz Ad: Distinct Lack of Imagination

By Michael Mandiberg | Published: August 17, 2008

“Michael Kraus saw the alert about the long taxi line. So he called his brother who lives nearby and got a ride home. Now he owes him a turkey sandwich.” So advertising is about imagining potential futures. It is about hope, and aspirations and dreams. Is getting a ride home from the airport all those [...]

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Buenos Aires to Remove 40 Thousand Billboards to Fight Visual Pollution

By Steve Lambert | Published: August 12, 2008

this just in from Treehugger (thanks Sam!) (Photo: alex-s.) The Buenos Aires government and a group of advertising associations have agreed to remove 40 thousand billboards that are infracting the city’s code, Clarin newspaper informed. This represents about 60% of the total amount of billboards. This agreement is part of a government plan to put [...]

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