A MARKETING CAMPAIGN AGAINST ADVERTISING

Below is a wonderful essay by RJ Rushmore for Monument Lab. Im not sure how much RJ is aware of the writing of Jeff Ferrell but his sentiments echo a lot of Jeff's criminological research. Pigeon holed by the anti advertising title, most anti advertising activists are actually trying to imagine what might replace the commercial images that surround us if given the chance. RJ is well aware of this and like a lot of us, trying to figure out how to recontextualize what he is doing so that it broadens his demands and has more potential to change not only our streets, but fundamental ways in which we interact and exist with one another. Fantastic.

VIA: Monument Lab

Skateboarders refuse to see the city as intended. It is a playground. It is theirs. Every curb, bench, and set of stairs is a potential skateable object. Even though I put down my own skateboard around age 15, that mindset stayed with me. Skateboarding gave me a gift: the inclination to resist the pressures that cities feed us to be passive. As I've spent the last decade alongside artists who intervene in public spaces (be that through street art, graffiti, public art, or street performance), that inclination has matured, evolved, and became the driving force behind my work as a writer and curator. More [HERE]

Rushing to Top Up Your SEPTA Key? You’ll Have to Watch This Ad First

VIA: Philly Magazine

It’s a rare thing, these days, to find a true example of what marketers call a captive audience. It used to be the case that an advertiser could slap an image along the inside of a subway car, and your options were essentially twofold: Distract yourself with a book or magazine, or give the ad a read (or three). It’s not like you had anything better to do as the train rumbled along. More [HERE]

Up-And-Coming Artists Transforming Parts Of SEPTA Subway Stations

VIA: CBS Local Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Every day Philadelphians are bombarded by advertisements. They’re on their phones, TVs and buildings. But would they feel differently if the ad space was actually art space? More [HERE]

‘Reclaiming public space’: How Philadelphians turned ads into art

I am continually baffled by the fact that we clearly want more public art but we still let corporations set the price for access to use our very own shared public spaces.

VIA: Philly Curbed

Almost two months ago, the ads came.

“300 jeeps cheap!” the words in bright yellow lettering blared from nearly 400 Big Belly trash cans around Center City. It’s followed by a 1-800 number for an auto dealership.

Immediately, Philadelphians took notice. Journalist Stephanie Farr tweeted that the ads looked terrible, journalist Jim MacMillan called them hideous. The words “eye sore” were thrown around on Twitter, and within days one can lay in a melted pile on the ground (though it’s unclear whether that was linked to outrage over the ads).

More [HERE]

Keep Fighting the Good Fight Philly

Philly has a very active citizens front. 

VIA: Philly Magazine

The Philadelphia Parking Authority wants to install 45 billboards in neighborhood parking lots – but community members and activists aren’t happy with the plans. More [HERE]

Advertising on Public Buildings Is a Sad, Terrible Thing

This little rant by Jared Brey is one of the most succinct and compelling arguments against outdoor advertising, particularly on municipal infrastructure, that I have ever read. The quote below is so good I had to put it directly into this post but read the rest of the article for more interesting observations about why advertising on municipal buildings is a terrible fucking idea!

VIA: Philly Mag

Two, this proposal will supposedly generate “up to $500,000” a year, which is a glass-half-full way of saying it will generate less than $500,000 a year. Half a million dollars is no pittance, of course, and in a poor city like Philadelphia, every penny helps. But $500,000 is just 0.0125 percent of the $4 billion municipal budget. For comparison’s sake, that same portion of the $41,233 median income in Philadelphia is just five dollars and 15 cents. If someone asked you to hang a billboard on your front door and promised you “up to” $5.15 a year in return, what would you say? I know what I’d say: Get right the fuck out of here, please, sir. Read more [HERE]

Philly Artist Joe Boruchow Calls Out Trump, Rizzo With Latest Work

VIA: Philadelphia Magazine

Well-known Philly artist Joe Boruchow has recently added three new works to his portfolio — and to the streets of Philly. Each are rendered in Boruchow’s signature black-and-white paper cutouts, cut from a single sheet of black paper and wheat pasted to platforms around the city. The latest designs mock Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and protest the statue erected in honor of 1970’s Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo in front of the Municipal Services Building. Read more [HERE]

Art Commission approves rehab of 5th Street El station, denies digital displays at SEPTA entrances

Philadelphia has a backbone and because of it they will resist the increasing digital blight blanketing major metropolitan cities across the United States. At this point I am beginning to see Intersection without the rose colored glasses they gave me a few years back when they were looking for community engagement strategies and other ways to ingratiate thier network of digital advertising structures into the NYC landscape. Thank god for Mary Tracy and the rest of the Scenic Philadelphia team. 

VIA: Plan Philly

What we won’t see at SEPTA’s 5th Street/ Independence Hall Station is digital displays on the new entrances. The Art Commission rejected the permanent installation of 42 digital outdoor displays proposed for SEPTA entrances as part of a public-private partnership. More [HERE]