I Couldn't Help Myself - B-days and V-days

After a recent post on reinventing the payphone, I took some time to look into the OOH company, Titan360. Searching Instagram I found an amazing picture of the Titan360 CEO Don Allman in front of a phonebooth that had been repurposed to wish him a happy birthday. The photo made me think of another Instagram shot I had seen which shows a repurposed phonebooth wishing another special someone a happy Valentines day.

Now if you buy the shit eating grin on Don's face as legitimate excitement and joy (which I do), its not a big mental leap to realize that a simple change in copy has completely altered not only the phonebooth's use, but its effect on the public. In my little vision of utopia, advertising disappears and our public infrastructure is participatory, free to be altered and repurposed for our collective or individual needs. Given Mr Allman's excitement at seeing his own face looking back at him from beneath phonebooth glass,  I think he probably agrees.