The Anti-Advertising Agency » toronto

Billboard Companies Protest Billboard Tax…On Illegal Billboards – from Torontoist

Steve Lambert — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:00:22 +0000

The billboard industry is—obviously—in the business of getting messages across.

This they have managed to do, with a vengeance.

In anticipation of today's City Council debate on a proposed new billboard bylaw and tax, the billboard industry has been using its own platform to communicate its deep opposition to these measures. The Out-of-Home Marketing Association of Canada (OMAC), which represents the vast majority of billboard companies operating in Toronto, launched this campaign last week, setting aside 139 billboards for the cause.

Inconveniently, it turns out that at least two of these 139 billboards have been deemed illegal by the City. As pointed out and explained to us by Rami Tabello of Illegal Signs, both are in violation of existing regulations and neither should be doing what they are doing, namely expressing just how aggrieved and put-upon the billboard industry is feeling.

And this, say public-space activists, is precisely the point.

[snip]

The proposed regulations will not eliminate billboards, and they aren’t trying to. Nobody is attempting to strangle the industry to death, stamp out all billboards across the land, or otherwise start a revolution. The City has every right to govern what goes on in our public spaces, and it has every obligation to be a good steward of those spaces, balancing the commercial interests of the industry and the property owners to whom billboard companies pay rent with the civic interests of the majority of Torontonians, 70% of whom support this tax according to a recent poll [PDF].

Nobody likes to be forced to play by the rules. That doesn’t make refereeing an unfair practice.

via Billboard Companies Protest Billboard Tax…On Illegal Billboards – Torontoist.

Free Billboard Lobbyist Sanitizer Now Available for All Members of Council (from illegalsigns.ca)

Steve Lambert — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:03:51 +0000

It is looking like City Council will debate the new signs by-law and billboard tax on Tuesday December 1.

According to the City’s Lobbyist Registry, billboard industry lobbyists have had over 80 closed door meetings with City Councillors in the past month alone.

As a result, IllegalSigns.ca has designed, manufactured and is now distributing these custom-made products to all members of City Council who are documented to have come into contact with a billboard industry lobbyist.

via » Free Billboard Lobbyist Sanitizer Now Available for All Members of Council ::: illegalsigns.

Green Sleeves – Illegal ads turned planters on Torontoist

Steve Lambert — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:07:46 +0000

It’s 6 a.m. in Kensington Market on a Sunday morning, with the sun out but only barely, and Eric Cheung and Sean Martindale are busy planting flowers. At College and Augusta, on the two large posterboards on the west wall of Sam’s, they cut the outlines of large triangles deep into the thick layers of posters, through and past the topmost movie ads for The Ugly Truth and District 9 on one board and the PSP on the other. Then they pull those triangles out, folding and curving them into a pocket that’s shaped like something between a cone and a pyramid, using a staple gun to firmly attach it to the wall. When all the triangles across both boards are cut and folded and curved and stapled, which won’t be for another few hours, Cheung and Martindale will fill each pocket with dirt and place a plant inside, spraying it with water.

read the rest:

Green Sleeves – Torontoist.

CBC on IllegalSigns.ca

Steve Lambert — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:00:04 +0000

Go Rami!

Why You Should Be In New York July 1st

Steve Lambert — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:30:06 +0000

Activists estimate that half the billboards in New York City are illegal. Between fudged permits, lack of enforcement, and millions in profit, outdoor advertising has become a corporate black market that wont flinch at breaking laws to get your attention. On July 1st, the Anti-Advertising Agency and Rami Tabello of IllegalSigns.ca will give a free workshop teaching you how to identify illegal advertising and get it taken down. You will leave this workshop equipped to have illegal signs removed in your neighborhood.

Canadian activist group IllegalSigns.ca is responsible for the removal over 100 illegal billboards in the City of Toronto and will reveal how the billboard industry gets away with breaking the law and what New Yorkers can do to stop it.

Tuesday July 1st, 2008 6pm – Free
Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology
540 W. 21st St.
New York, NY 10011

image mashup using Joe McKay and incendiarymind

Article on Rami Tabello of IllegalSigns.CA

Steve Lambert — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:57:39 +0000

If you haven’t checked out IllegalSigns.CA yet, Rami Tabello is the man behind the removal of dozens of illegal billboards in Toronto.

From IllegalSigns.CA:

Humber College’s Convergence Magazine has published this article [PDF] about IllegalSigns.ca. It breaks a bit of new ground with the following quotes:

“The billboard lobby is a very powerful lobby,they do a lot of schmoozing of councilors,” concedes Toronto Councillor Howard Moscoe. “The billboard industry makes millions and millions of dollars off their affairs and can afford to hire people to lobby for them. Of course, councillors, we’re supposed to be immune from all that.”

“It’s turned the issue into a circus and has reduced the Toronto-East York community council into a council with a fetish about signs, rather than one dealing with development and other issues that are far more important than signs,” says Toronto City Councillor Kyle Rae.

IllegalSigns.CA, we love you.

Steve Lambert — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 22:34:50 +0000

If you ever looked at the overwhelming amount of advertising in urban spaces and questioned whether or not you can make a difference, you most certainly can. Meet Rami Tabello, the man behind my new favorite website: IllegalSigns.CA. The Toronto based site tracks illegal signs, as well as lax enforcement through freedom of information requests and old-fashioned sleuthing. Since starting earlier this year, his organization was able to remove 200 illegal signs in just their first 2 months.

I’m still a bit speechless by how awe-inspiring this effort is, so I’ll let them explain…

Everyone should have a hobby. Our hobby is destroying illegal billboards with the rule of law. The outdoor advertising industry has a global culture of non-compliance with the law. Advertising companies are erecting illegal billboards all over the world, wherever they can get away with it. In Toronto, this renegade, lawless industry has been acting with impunity due to bureaucratic negligence. Our Streets are where civic capital is created. Illegal billboards monetize our civic capital, under no colour of right, by treating citizens as consumers first. Illegal billboards commodify what is unique about our neighbourhoods by turning our Streets into pages of a mass-market magazine, without regard to the law. Join us as we fight to legalize and democratize Toronto’s visual environment. Join us as we fight to Reclaim the Streets.

Another amazing tidbit pulled from a piece on illegalsigns.ca in Canada’s Marketing Daily:

Les Abro, president and CEO of Abcon Media, acknowledges the outdoor advertising industry has a history of flouting signage bylaws. “It is widespread. It’s the nature of the beast—you either do it or you don’t do any business,” says Abro.