I Want To See Something Else

I was recently informed about the I Want To See Something Else project in Helsinki. This legal advertising takeover was organized through Facebook and harnessed public interest to purchase advertising space in an effort to display public sentiment. Similar in concept to the Times Square Art Square project but on a much smaller scale, this project has brought social media into the realm of public space activism. While I am all for a project like this, such blatant anti commercial messages would have a hard time making it to the streets in the US where advertising companies are very sensitive to politically charged media and or any critique of the OOH advertising format.

I WANT TO SEE SOMETHING ELSE
“Outdoor advertising isn’t consumed. People are exposed to it”, “When people are out and about, that’s where you’ll find us. When you’re out of doors, you are constantly interacting with your environment and open to stimuli”
(JCDecaux Finland website)

“Haluan nähdä muutakin” (I want to see something else) is a project conquering a little part of the commercial outdoor media back to the people. For one week, 21 bus and tram stops in downtown Helsinki will bear a non-commercial message. 1458 people participated in renting them for one week – at 5896.62 euros, the average contribution was 4.20€ per person. The word was spread through a Facebook page from the beginning of December. Within 1.5 months, the page reached almost 6000 fans and it took only two weeks to collect the needed amount of money.

The text in the posters says in Finnish: “I want to see something else – 1458 people wanted to free this space from commercial purposes for a week”. In addition, the poster displays 1311 messages from the participants – telling what they would like to see instead in urban space. The “bus/tram stop exhibition” takes place 24–30 January 2011. Visit website [Here]