This blog is a resource for ad takeover artists and information about contemporary advertising issues in public space. If you have content you would like to share, please send us an email.
Eduardo Moises Penalver & Sonia Kaytal Property Outlaws: How Squatters, Pirates, and Protesters Improve the Law of Ownership
Barbara Ehrenreich Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy
Lewis Hyde The Gift, Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World
Geoffrey Miller Spent: Sex, Evolution, & Consumer Behavior
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Advertising Shits In Your Head, US Edition.
Our good friends at PM Press have put together an American version of thier best selling "Advertising Shits In Your Head" UK publication. With Interviews, tutorials and insightful knowledge about advertising and its pernicious influence, ASIYH is a fantastic read and a great present for young minds and public space activists. If you can help support the Kickstarter campaign please do what you can to insure this publication makes it to press.
Advertising Shits in Your Head calls ads what they are—a powerful means of control through manipulation—and highlights how people across the world are fighting back. It diagnoses the problem and offers practical tips for a DIY remedy. Faced with an ad-saturated world, activists are fighting back, equipped with stencils, printers, high-visibility vests, and utility tools. Their aim is to subvert the ads that control us. More [HERE]
Wonderful little article on a new publication that I am super proud to be a part of called "Advertising Shits in Your Head" get a copy [HERE] It is only 4$
Vyvian Raoul brings us three exclusive interviews with the subvertising artists featured in a new book on the contemporary subvertising movement, Advertising Shits In Your Head. More [HERE]
Simple, effective and always on point. As funny as this piece is for a chuckle and a nod, this is pretty serious on a fundamental level. When we privilege one type of communication over another we are making a collective decision about our priorities and ultimately our desires for our future selves. As of right now, we got it all fucked up and Mobstr knows it.
One of the most important things we can do to address the egregious use of our public space to stoke the fires of consumerism, while undermining our individual and community well being, and monopolizing an important space for public discourse, through the proliferation of outdoor advertising imagery, is to talk about it, think about it, and write about it so that more people begin to understand the profound ways in which it is both a cause and a symptom of many of the problems our collectivity faces today. While I may have chosen another title for the book, Advertising Shits In Your Head, is an important addition to the small collection of literature around this very important public topic. And when it really comes down to it, the book title really is just the honest truth.
Please take the time to visit the crowdfunder campaign and donate even a small amount of money to help cover the printing costs of this non-for-profit publication and publisher.
"Advertising Shits In Your Head combines theory and practice in one short book about the modern subvertising movement. Featuring: Public Ad Campaign, Brandalism, Special Patrol Group and Dr. D. Dog Section Press is a not-for-profit publisher and all of our publications are printed with Calverts, a workers' co-operative."
While I definitely think there are some additions to this Anti-Advertising history, I was super happy to be included in the timeline. The fact of the mater is that despite the growth of advertising alongside the rise of global capitalism, there is a strong resistance being mounted from artists and academics alike that see it as an important battleground for addressing the rampant pillaging of our planet and the de-evolution of our critical public discourse.
If you don't already know about the website Cultural Hijack, it's well worth taking a look at some of the projects and artists they highlight. Some ad takeover work, but also an assortment of other relevant projects.
I was just in the Poster Remediated exhibition at the 25th Poster Biennial in the Poster Museum of Warsaw. Alongside my work was Vermibus, the Brandalism project, and a small glass case for the Special Patrol Group's Hack Pack. I was under the impression these little artistic intervention kits were only available at Banksy's Dismaland as a one off stunt. Over the past two weeks I have met some of the mischief makers behind this amazing project and realize that they can be purchased through the internet [HERE]. Not only that but the price of the keys are nearly 3 times cheaper than I am able to sell them, making them fantastic for the interventionist looking for a good deal.
I am pleased to announce my participation in The Art Conference coming up in late July at the Ugly Duck in London. Billed as the first of many, TAC#01 is focused on the evolution of Street Art. I will be speaking about my practice, the role of advertising on our collective psyche, and how we might use art to further our visions of utopia beyond the gallery walls. In addition to the talk I will be giving, I am also going to exhibit a few images from the Collisions series along with some of the PublicAccess keys and video.
I am excited to be a part of the event as there are a handful of incredible artists and thinkers I have worked with in the past, as well as others that I look forward to meeting at the event. If you are in London July 23rd and 24th, make sure to get yourself a ticket and join us for what will be an interesting two days of thoughtful discussion. Find out more and register [Here]
Dr. D‘s latest project, a collaboration with Disobedient Films, takes his ad busting beyond billboards. Sly TV, a parody of the British satellite TV company Sky (a part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire), is perhaps most visible as a series of wheatpastes in East London.
More [HERE]
Inside the anti-advertising movement that's recruiting ad agency workers to destroy billboards and replace them with art
Wonderful article on Brandalism and all it's ambitious work in the anti advertising space. Also, I've never seen this Robert Montgomery billboard but it hit even harder than usual so I had to include it.
Brandalism: a movement dedicated to reclaiming the outdoor, visual realm from corporate control. But why outdoor advertising in particular? When buying a magazine, or watching a particular TV channel, the consumer is to some extent consenting to being shown ads. By contrast, in the outdoor space, there's often no choice. More [Here]
Reminiscent of the AAA's industry outreach projects, this Brandalism campaign asks those in the advertising profession to give in to thier conscience and switch sides. Amazing!
UK culture secretary John Whittingdale gave a speech at the Oxford Media Convention where he compared adblocking to piracy and vowed "to set up a round table involving major publishers, social media groups and adblocking companies in the coming weeks to do something about the problem." More [HERE]
Hackpacks and the right to the city: some thoughts
Some really interesting thoughts coming out of the UK on ad takeover work and its role in imagining new social realities not just on the street but in the larger cultural context.
It costs an advertiser a few £10k’s to access bus shelter advertising spaces, it costs you £6. After their involvement with Banksy’s Dismaland exhibition, Strike Magazine! have been working to ensure public access to a third of the global outdoor media landscape; offering inhabitants the tools to claim their right to at least a part of the city. Their hack pack comes with a handy how-to guide. More [HERE]
Trying to keep this site updated with content has fallen victim to the ease of Instagram posting and the "like" feedback loop that is incredibly satisfying while simultaneously being a drain on my faculties. I've got some new work coming up soon, NOAD is still well worth checking out with new Gif art showing now, and Public Access which will be expanding in the net month after its initial launch. Until then, enjoy this beautiful and honest Mobstr piece.
258 Calls Out The Industry With This Interactive Billboard
Just got this very nice email from 258 in the UK. Its heartening to see the PublicAdCampaign project influencing people around the world as it is a labor of love.
Hey Jordan,
I don’t know if you take submissions for your blog but I thought I would email you over the piece of work I have just completed now I have some better documentation of it in action and very nearly almost put it on their blog.
The billboard appears blank at first but is user activated, as you walk past the piece, sensors are triggered and turn lights on one by one revealing a hidden word, WANKERS, my interpretation on what the bosses of these outdoor advertising companies think of us, the people who have to use this space without ever having had any say if advertising was ok. If we wish to not be exposed to adverts on the internet, tv or radio then we can stop using these things, we cannot however stop using public space and if we try to put our own messages in that space we are the ones ridiculed.
Anyway thanks for taking the time to read this as you know i'm a big fan of what you do and the message/knowledge public ad campaign spreads. Below is a link to my site & a link to a short video of the billboard in action (a longer version is set to follow).
Brandalism 2014 Hits the UK Again - A Movement Grows
First, stop what you are doing and go to the Brandalism website [HERE]. Once you have visited the site, come back for my thoughts on this incredible project and the implications of a larger growing social movement with an eye on our public spaces, and the health of our communities.
Just yesterday, the world citizens over at the Brandalism project carried out the largest advertising takeover project ever! With 40 participating artists, they took over 365 bus shelter and freestanding advertising spaces in 10 UK cities, all over the course of 2 days. This was a massive undertaking that clearly took months of planning and the dedication of a huge number of participants, not to mention the full time work of several core organizers. The sheer scale of their action demands a conversation about who our public media infrastructure is serving and how it might be better used, a sentiment we share over here at PublicAdCampaign. Instead of repeating familiar grievances in this post, we suggest you take a look at the amazing documentation and political insights gathered on the Brandalism website so we can take this opportunity to talk about what continued large scale civil disobedience means for this growing movement.
John Fekner and Jordan Seiler
Lately, I have been amazed at the sheer number of projects and activities that are taking place around the anti-advertising movement. Brandalism in the UK and The Empty Project in Madrid continue a history of large scale civil disobedience, full scale gallery exhibitions from Vermibus, OX, BR1 and Mobstr show a growing movement of dedicated artists, activists in Australia are getting themselves arrested for a chance to challenge the status quo, urban planners in LA taking notes on how to better serve the community, undergraduate classes at our major universities are engaging the anti-advertising conversation, even our own city governments seem to be stepping up and policing our streets. All this adds up to a community trying to understand our relationship to corporate media driven public spaces, and fight for what is right. No longer does this seem like the work of a few crazy street artists. The question is what are our next steps and how do we begin to realize some of our demands in light of this growing momentum?
The first step is to continue coordinated actions like the Brandalism project and any other public protests which help make this issue visible. Apathy towards the negative role outdoor advertising plays in our lives, along with a long tradition of public space ownership by corporate media, has made this issue difficult for people to take seriously. It is important that we remain committed to continued disruptions so that the cause remains on the forefront of our collective conscience.
The second step is using the attention these projects get to teach larger communities about issues beyond aesthetics. Advertising has a profound effect on our collective interests, it sculpts our behaviors, and thus has direct impacts on our environment as well. This issue is about understanding how the images that surround us shape who we are. It is about reclaiming control of the public spaces that define us and in the process gaining more control over the systems which govern us.
The third step is to pressure our local governments to act on our behalf and impose the will of the public. Most large cities have some department which is tasked with controlling outdoor advertising. in NYC it is the Department of Buildings. These departments are highly understaffed and likely not very motivated to control advertisings persistent encroachment on our shared public spaces by what seems like an apathetic public. Email your local representatives, find out who is responsible for policing advertising, and make your presence known.
The last step is to remain vigilante against false equivalencies. With a growing movement of people demanding advertising's removal from public space, outdoor advertisers will need to take drastic steps to persuade the public that they are ultimately acting in the public's interest. These will come in the form of small and large "donations" of space and random acts of altruism. There are plenty of examples of these public outreach programs masquerading as public art projects but in the end all they do is serve to concretize a public space whose visual imagery is curated by outdoor advertising corporations and the large for profit businesses that pay them to promote thier private messages.
