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 are [...]
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 there.
This video was sent on by someone who I’m not yet sure wants to remain anonymous. A simple and colorful change. Part of the massive coordinated art takeover of illegal advertising space this past weekend – which you will hear more about on this site soon…
Guest post from AAA Reader James Ewert:
A certain greasy chicken franchise is adding another item to its menu: pothole patching. In Louisville, KY and potentially in a town near you, what was once a city service paid for by tax payers might become another avenue for advertising. The fried chicken restaurant extended an offer to [...]
February 9, 2009 – 9:00 am
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 [...]
February 4, 2009 – 12:28 am
According to the New York Times, “Poster Boy” was arrested on Saturday night.
While most other street or graffiti artists concentrate on adding their own imagery, illegally, to parts of the subway system, Poster Boy, a kind of anti-consumerist Zorro with a razor blade, a sense of humor and a talent for collage, has [...]
February 2, 2009 – 7:36 pm
This is making the rounds could inspire some creative action:
There’s a set of instructions on how to hack the signs floating around the internet. My favorite series is over on the MIT site.
Thanks Kelli Anderson for the tip!
December 29, 2008 – 11:51 pm
via TomorrowMusuem via via Cinema Blend
October 20, 2008 – 7:23 am
Vinyl billboard blankets have been draped over all kinds of buildings, but they’re not usually found obscuring the glittering luxury outlets along East 57th Street.
Chanel, however, has done that very thing: hanging a big piece of vinyl over its building at No. 15, promoting Mobile Art, an exhibition by the architect Zaha Hadid that opens [...]
October 3, 2008 – 11:18 pm
This is graffiti:
it’s spray paint
it’s done without permission on someone else’s property
it’s illegal
politicians hate it
It’s the expression of a citizen (or small group of citizens) in public space speaking to fellow citizens. Anyone, willing to take the legal [...]
October 3, 2008 – 9:00 am
The L.A. Times is reporting Clear Channel has its eye on 674 state owned digital billboards on California Highways. The billboards were installed to alert drivers to road hazards and for Amber Alerts providing “urgent bulletins in the most serious child-abduction cases.”
But now the state is listening to Clear Channel.
Apparently California needs money. [...]
September 16, 2008 – 2:35 pm
Another bad deal to trade public space for money from The New York Sun:
Council Member David Yassky of Brooklyn is calling for the city to begin allowing advertising on municipal trash cans and suggested that such a move, which he estimated could bring $2.5 million in revenue, would help during difficult economic times.
“We need to [...]
August 28, 2008 – 11:30 am
from treehugger:
We have complained before about ad creep, how the public realm is being taken over by private marketers. I don’t know if I should be happy or sad that the Egg Farmers of Canada have determined that there are enough cyclists in London, Ontario that they want to pay to advertise to them by [...]
August 27, 2008 – 2:00 pm
AAA Project, Light Criticism made an appearance in the International Guerilla Video Festival in Milan. The Festival was held on Corso Como, a street in Milan that has plenty of outdoor advertising. The video was projected onto the streets alongside billboards and commercial shops.
August 27, 2008 – 9:00 am
“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.