Nychos Sidebust is Typical Parasitic Outdoor Advertising Behavior

Alex Emmart of Mighty Tanaka Gallery recently sent me this image. His outrage at the parasitic nature of the advertising placement is completely understandable. Nychos, painted the beautiful mural a while back and after attracting crowds of loyal fans and public citizens eager to get a look at the beautiful work, Prince Media decided to get in on the action by placing a large advertisement as close as they could.

While this seems typical of outdoor media behavior, to those unfamiliar with the tactics of the industry, it came as a complete shock. How could a company so brazenly use the mural for its own gain? How could this commercial message be allowed to destroy the unique quality this mural brought to this wall by interrupting the aesthetics and bastardizing the whole visual experience? These are valid questions but ones that don't have an acceptable answer in todays media environment. The advertisement has a permit and is therefore legal. The question we really should be asking is why would we allow commercial media access to any of our public spaces, be it next to amazing works of art or on the random side of a building. In each case the commercial media alters our experience of public space in a negative way and should be rendered obsolete.