Partizaning - Participatory Urban Replanning

Shriya Malhotra just did a nice interview piece over at Partizaning, a wonderful urban activism site everyone should check out [HERE]
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Our cities are increasingly dominated by advertisements. Media literacy is taken for granted, and people seem unaware of the thousands of images they are absorbing each day, or of the impact they might have. In 2007, the mayor of the Brazilian city of São Paulo passed a ‘clean city law’, forbidding any form of commercial communication outdoors. And as a result, artists started to occupy walls with colors and shapes. But legalities aside, globally, people are retaliating against the capitalist domination of free space by ad-busting and hacking billboards to un-clutter public space.

For the complete interview [HERE]

Moscow authorities plan to remove all ads from historical buildings

Watch the demand grow for an ad free public space!

VIA The Voice of Russia

Moscow authorities plan to remove all advertisements from the city's historical buildings, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said.

In particular, in the next two weeks a gigantic logo of Mercedez will be removed from the roofs of one of the historical buildings near the Kremlin.

Sobyanin said that such billboards and logos often spoil the view of the Russian capital.

This Could Be The Biggest Ad Ever Erected

Animal New York reports that this "20-story couple can be seen discerned from five kilometers away." It may be the biggest outdoor advertisement on Earth but proposed plans in 1999 for Moonvertising would have dwarfed this little puppy.

"Moonvertising involves shining a powerful laser at the moon and projecting an advertising message that can be seen from around the world. Coca-Cola tried to do it in 1999 as the millennium approached, but the FAA was worried about interference with aircraft (i.e. "cutting flying airplanes in half")."

Video of Moscow's Billboard Porn Hack [NSFW]

Im not sure if this is appropriate content for advertising takeovers but it sure as hell does get your attention. On top of this there is no mistaking that someone clearly hacked this billboard.