The invasion of the Boris bikes is complete. They stand on street corners, corralled like docile, futuristic horses in their blue harnesses. They’re good bikes – sturdy and solid – with a rather pleasing sit-up-and-beg riding position the better to survey the road around you. Undocking them is also quite fun, like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The name has become universal, which is only to be expected, launched as they were with all the pomp the bicycling mayor could muster. It’s not that we’ve forgotten that the bikes were originally Ken’s idea, but that Boris is a far more visible cyclist. The official name, ‘Barclays Cycle Hire’, was never going to take off, despite the lurid corporate livery.

Barclays have got a good deal from the £25 million they contributed to the £140 million scheme. As well as painting their company colours onto the streets, in the form of the pointless cyan-tarmac ‘cycle superhighways’ that run from the centre of London to various suburban hubs, they’ve also bedecked the machines with their logos.

How different from the first municipal bicycle scheme, conceived by the anarchist Provo movement in the Netherlands in the 1960s. The Provos proposed that central Amsterdam should be a car-free zone, and that the council should invest in 20,000 white bicycles that would be owned by the people and free for general use. The council rejected the plan but the Provos went ahead and bought 50 bikes which they released unlocked onto the streets, where they were promptly impounded by the police or stolen. (Some of their other schemes, like the one that urged drivers to ‘offset’ their carbon emissions by carrying small gardens around on the roofs of their cars, were delightfully Swiftian. Others were prescient: the Provos argued that prolific industrial polluters should be fined accordingly, and that the chimneys of the worst offenders should be painted white.)

Barclays’ flagrant appropriation of such a utopian idea was always going to cause tension, and the Boris bikes have become ripe targets for ‘subvertising’. ‘Situationist guerrilla teams’ have been doctoring the broadside ad space over the back wheel.

The Vélib’ scheme, the Parisian equivalent of the Boris Bikes, and the largest and longest running communal bicycle scheme around, has shown that regular investment is a necessary to maintain a fleet like this. A number of the French bikes are dredged from the Seine every month. Others are hung on trees like Christmas decorations, or ridden down stairs until they shake themselves to bits. One even turned up in Australia.

Barclays probably doesn’t give much of a shit about you, but if the bikes are going to continue to be useful then ongoing investment is a must. It’s unlikely that the money will be forthcoming from Boris.

via Invasion of the Boris Bikes « LRB blog. (thanks Mandiberg)

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Remember, it just takes one pen. Send us yours.

Seen in a subway station.

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The folks at Tappening have released one of the funniest and smartest PSA-ish social education campaigns I’ve seen in a long time. Well, maybe since the New York Times Special Edition.

Reports are these cute single color posters with white lies about the bottled water industry will be hitting the streets of NYC soon, if they aren’t already up (I’m out of town for another week).

My favorite is “Bottled Water: 98% melted ice caps, 2% polar bear tears.” The small print at the bottom of the poster says: “If bottled water companies can lie, we can too.”

Their “Start a Lie” website is also killer. Anyone can add a lie about the bottled water industry, e.g.: “Bottled water makes me urinate fire.”

They also did these great ones during the Presidential election about McCain and Obama.

Awesome work!

Also, for any educators out there, this is practically a readymade course assignment for any art, design, social studies, activism course.

From Coolhunting, via Marisa Olson

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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 clandestine. In fact, they invite the police to protest rallies where they deface signs. With a copywriter’s flair, one of their slogans warns: “Attention Avert your eyes from ads: You risk being very strongly manipulated.” The goal of the Dismantlers is to get arrested, argue the righteousness of their cause in court and, you guessed it, gain publicity.
Read more: In Paris, an anti-ad insurgency – Los Angeles Times - thanks Chris

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via TomorrowMusuem via via Cinema Blend

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• New York Magazine on “Product integration, 30 Rock, and the trouble with using brands to write TV.”
• New York Magazine (again): “Slice and Dice – One man’s vandalism is another’s political art. Just ask Poster Boy, the Matisse of subway-ad mash-ups.”
• Art Vs. Advertising – compiling info you may have read here, other places, or not at all into one post.
• Hacking “Harassment by Advertising” – The French fight advertising with non-violent civil disobedience. They are bad asses. (they interviewed me for this one, but I didn’t pick up the paper in time. Finally got to read it courtesy of Mr. Skaggs.)
• Keepin’ It Realtor – a non-profit organization devoted to championing and promoting excellence in all forms of real estate advertising and design.
• Last, Jordan has been finding some great stuff at illegalbillboards.org. If you’re in NYC and want to get involved, get in touch.

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“delete your facebook its the cool fucking thing to do” & “kill your TV” written in sharpie on the wall of a Dunkin Donuts in Spring Creek on the New Jersey shore. Oh Facebook, the rebel tweens are turning on you already.

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YouTube – Dothegreenthing.com: Tears Of A Cloud

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We still love the iPhone, but it’s good to see some sharp observers calling some of its advertising to task. This simple, clear video shows the ad side-by-side with the reality, plus some brief comments. And no, there is no iPhone on earth that works as quickly and smoothly as the one in those “Twice as Fast” ads, despite all the noise being made about how quick the thing is.

Conclusion: “I like Apple products, but I dislike being misled by deceptive advertising more.”

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