‘New York’ magazine covers become public art in citywide installation

The line between art and commerce on our streets has become so blurred that a New York magazine "Wildposting" campaign can be pitched as a public art program. Wildposting is illegal advertising, or graffiti by another name. When someone wild posts on your property, the image below shows what you have to do in order to avoid fines from the city. I'm not saying I want NY magazine to stop, but I am saying that we need to reevaluate what constitutes proper use of public space and who gets access and who does not.

VIA: Curbed NYC

In honor of New York Magazine’s 50th anniversary, the publication is launching a year-long exhibit showcasing specially-designed New York covers by 50 renowned artists, called simply “A Public Art Project.” More [HERE]

Chuck Agency / Seen Outdoor has reached the new low.

Recently I have been getting lots of emails regarding the increased and aggressive wild posting campaigns happening around NYC. Here is a good one I think you should know about.

Chuck Agency / Seen Outdoor has reached the new low.

Mark Samsonovich created a project he called Public Art Campaign, "Love is teletpathic", and while he was taking photographs of the installation, Chuck Agency's Dave Porter ripped down his posters at 4th & 10th. And Porter proceeded to tell Mark to "Go FUCK himself and these were his walls!". Dave Porter previously worked for NPA.

They say they use permitted dedicated sites but they have no permits. They create agreements under Seen Outdoor with some of the landlords and sell them under the Chuck Agency name, Jay Heleva is the president of Chuck Agency.

Mark Samsonovich project: www.loveistelepathic.com

 More Seen Outdoor ruining public art. The Street Art of Bushwick Collective Is Disappearing Under Billboards | Bushwick Daily: http://bushwickdaily.com/2015/06/the-street-art-of-bushwick-collective-is-disappearing-under-billboards/#.VZMyoP1glis.twitter

Attached: A .pdf of Chuck's 'dedicated lease locations'. (You can ask and they'll send you the same thing) Download [HERE]

Illegal Wildposting on My Way To Lunch

video footage taken early September 2013.

On my way to lunch today I came across an old familiar face wildposting in broad daylight. I have come across this particular person several times in the past, the first time being when he helped implicate my friends for the "crime" of protesting his companies illegal use of public space. As you can see by the blue painted posters, the construction company is doing all it can to keep the construction shed blue so they don't incur fines for the "work" he is doing. To him it must seem as if I am wandering the streets looking for illegal posting perpetrators 24 hrs a day. That couldn't be further from the truth, and should be an indication of the frequency and impunity with which wildposting happens. As you can see, I keep my distance in these situations due to past circumstances, but this man and I always exchange a few tense words. He asked if "I ever get tired of this" and I responded "No. Seems like you don't either." To which he responded "That's because they pay me." I asked him "If he was working for Contest Promotions or NPA still?" A question he smartly avoided before getting into his car.

I don't particularly like the fact that I end up F*%#ing with this guys life by continually catching him breaking the law, but I do know that the proliferation of consumer messages in our daily lives and especially on our streets where we have no option but to ingest them, is a detriment to our collective health that he continues to help perpetuate. Maybe one day we can have a beer and laugh this whole thing off, but until then I feel a duty to question the proliferation of commercial media in our shared public spaces, be it illegal or not.

Wildposting Continues Despite DOB Crackdown

A few years ago, we targeted a company call NPA outdoor with the NYSAT project because they were illegally operating hundreds of street level billboards in NYC alongside a massive illegal Flyposting campaign. The result of the NYSAT action was a massive crackdown on NPA by the NYC DOB which resulted in the near eradication of illegal Flyposting in the city as well an indictment of NPA's illegal billboard activities. Through legal gymnastics, NPA went out of business only to reappear as Contest Promotions, the same company operating at the same locations under what they argued were different legal circumstances. Long story short is Contest Promotions claimed they were not in the advertising business at all but rather working directly with mom and pop businesses to run a raffle program which allowed them to call their advertising product and their business operations first party, not third.

Surprisingly Contest Promotions was able to argue their case affectively and now those once illegal billboards are legal first party signage. Sad to see the illegal advertising company dodge responsibility and continue operating, we never expected our civil disobedience project to spur the city into action, but took heart in the fact that it did. It was a moment of staggering excitement when I noticed Flyposting had almost entirely stopped in NY and that the city was cracking down on the illegal business practices of NPA Outdoor.

You can imagine my reaction some two years later as Flyposting has begun full force in the city once more. I cannot say for sure who is behind these illegal activities but given my resources I will make sure to get to the bottom of this problem and bring whoever is responsible to light. Please send us pictures of any illegal Flyposting campaigns you see and if you can catch someone in the act, please take their picture so we can confirm the identity of the company in charge.

Also, if you are interested in the backstory, look back into our archives under NPA Outdoor, NYSAT, or Contest Promotions and you can read more from about this companies sordid past.

Now That The Wildposting Has Stopped, What Will Take Its Place?

It is my belief that public art (or public communication for that matter) and commercial advertising cannot coexist in public space. This is mainly because they need to occupy the same real estate and due to commercial advertising's bloated budgets, public art finds itself pushed to the sidelines as the city is over run with content that promotes private concerns over community values. There are other reasons but for the sake of this post this is the most important concern.

With this in mind, NPA city outdoor made a business out of illegal sniping of construction sheds in New York, fully covering them with commercial advertising until recently. After attention was called to NPA's illegal use of New York's public space, sniping stopped leaving construction sheds a bare blue. Without advertising, these spaces are now free for other content, and other content they will get. The NYC DOB has inaugurated a new arts program to beautify these ubiquitous NYC structures now that advertising has relinquished control. They write...

"We are thrilled to launch the urbancanvas Design Competition, an innovative contest to develop creative artwork for construction fences, sidewalk sheds, supported scaffolds and cocoons in New York City.

Construction sites are signs of this City's growth and prosperity. But it's no secret that the accompanying temporary protective structures often detract from the beauty of New York City's architecture. Sidewalk sheds alone span more than 1 million linear feet and can remain in place for nearly a year. These temporary installations protect pedestrians from construction debris and support construction activity, but they also present opportunities to enhance the urban experience for millions of New Yorkers." [More Here]

The development of the Urban Canvas design competition proves to me that when advertising disappears along with its interest in control and manipulation of public thoughts, art is often called upon to takes its place and keep our public spaces visually interesting. To deny advertising access to public space is to provide opportunities for artistic projects and public communications to take their rightful place in our shared environment.

Is NPA Shutting Down And Letting Contest Promotions Take Over?

Photo Shai Dahan, 37th & 3rd avenue

In the past few days I have noticed that in NYC a large number of NPA's illegal street level billboards have been covered with white paper. This comes in the wake of over 15 NPA ads in LA going white just over a week ago. The fact that the illegal billboards in NY and LA did not get new copy immediately after being whited out makes me think that this is NPA's doing and not the work of protestors. Why they are doing this I cannot be sure, but it should be noted that NPA's website is offline while their sister company, Contest Promotions, is still up and running.

18th street and 10th avenue

We all know NPA operates illegally in both cities so it might be expected that the recent removal of Fuel Outdoor ads due to their illegality, and the jailing of a landlord responsible for an illegal supergraphic in LA, has caused the company to shut down completely. If this were true, one would expect all of the companies illegal locations to be whited out, but that's not what we are seeing. In fact I have seen NPA locations around the city covered only sporadically. Sometimes from a single vantage point you can see one NPA ad that has been covered white and one that still retains copy. So what is going on?

I believe that NPA is finally shutting down and letting Contest Promotions takeover its illegal sign business. Through a twisting of words and meaning, the new business model adopted by Contest Promotions is attempting to legalize a portion of the illegal signage NPA was running. To understand what Contest Promotions does with NPA illegal signage in order to make them legal we suggest Ban Billboard Blight's post, "Contest Promotions Signs: Helping Mom & Pop Stores, or Creating Illegal Blight?"

If we are correct and Contest Promotions is taking over, only the signs that are placed on the sides of buildings where a viable business operates with an attendant on duty to man a bogus raffle box, would be legal. And indeed this is what we are seeing in most areas of NY. Locations like 19th street and 9th avenue (above) where there is a pizza shop open still have copy, while places like 37th street and 3rd avenue, which appears to be office space, have gone white.

Another way to tell if the NPA signage will likely fall into Contest Promotions hands under the assumption of legality, is by looking at the placards on all NPA signs. If the sign reads "Win these posters and other prizes inside, La Casa Del Pan, at 3802 Broadway avenue." or some other actual business, this sign will likely be taken by Contest Promotions. On the other hand, if the sign reads "Coming soon to this location, win these posters and other prizes inside." this location will not be viable as there is no business to operate their phony raffle boxes. From what we can tell those locations with a placard that refers to the business inside have retained copy while those without a valid business have gone white over the past few days.

Union avenue & Ainslie street

And if we are right about NPA going under and allowing Contest Promotions to takeover in a bid for legality, all of the wildposting locations around the city should be removed as Contest Promotions cannot justify this illegal activity. And sure enough, after the heavy rains last week I noticed many of the illegal wildposting locations NPA operated at construction sites and other locations around the city were either scrapped clean or postered white. It seemed that overnight many of the blatantly illegal wildposting locations were removed in a coordinated effort. I have seen people try to remove wildpostings from construction fences when they are dry and it is nearly impossible. I think NPA, knowing this, took advantage of the weather and removed illegal wildposting locations around the city knowing that they were going under and Contest Promotions was taking over.

14th street & 9th avenue

One last interesting thing we have noticed is that certain locations which could be operated by Contest Promotions under the guise of legality have still gone white. In the second image on this post you will see two NPA ads, one white, one with copy. They are both adhered to the same parking lot and one would assume they would both retain copy because there is a Contest Promotions raffle box at the parking agent house. It so happens that one of these locations is visible from the High Line park and because of this would be illegal under NYC law regardless of permitting, etc. We hope that this means that Contest Promotions will at least be operating within the confines of NYC law even if they are misconstruing the use of 1st party signage against all reason.

We can't say for sure that these NPA locations are without copy because of this transfer of ownership in an attempt to "go legal," but it seems likely. NPA has never been one to stand down without being pressured to do so. Recent litigation in San Francisco and a pledge from the city of NY to take the illegal public advertising issue more seriously, I believe has made it difficult for NPA operate so blatantly. We only hope that the efforts of hundreds of NYSAT participants, including those arrested by the NYPD for protesting the illegal signage, were in some way responsible for this change in direction and move towards a more commercial free public space.

We will keep you posted if things change, or our theory is proved correct. Until then we hope Contest Promotions looses its battle with San Francisco, and that their bogus scheme to keep operating a portion of NPA's illegal signage is proven to be just that, bogus.

If the Laws Aren't Enforced, Who Cares What The Laws Are?

This article from the NYCity NewsService, is about a bill being proposed to New York City which would legalize the now illegal practice called sniping. "The bill, proposed Council member Melinda Katz (D-Queens), would legalize advertising on construction sheds that cover sidewalks when buildings undergo exterior construction."

Sniping, or Wildposting, despite being illegal, is carried out on a daily basis by NPA City Outdoor and is happening while you read this. In fact, if you visit NPA's website, they will explain to you the different levels of sniping they offer, including Traditional Wildposting, Dedicated Locations, Dedicated Spectaculars, and City Wide Domination Buys. I find the language they use incredibly offensive and quite amazing. The last thing we want as a public are ads, "dominating" the city, and yet that is what is proposed.

Traditional Wildposting

Does no one realize that a law dedicated to preventing Wildposting does not matter and an article about whether the law will disappear in favor of outdoor advertising's abuse of public space is a completely moot point? If we see Wildposting all over the city on every surface, construction sites included, and the company doing the work is vocal about its practices, then for all intents and purposes these ads are not illegal to begin with. Clearly the city already condones this behavior.

I know having laws on the books criminalizing Wildposting activities would help us to combat the issue, if ever we decided it was time to clean the visual blight off our city streets. I get that. I cannot help but continue to see the law as a rouse crafted to appease the public while gifting the outdoor advertising industry full use of our public environment. This is especially true in light of the fact that 4 people were arrested by the NYPD, during the NYSAT project this last April. These individuals were trying to highlight the fact that NPA was operating illegally in our city and that our current law should allow the city to do something about it. Instead of being listened to these individuals spent the weekend in jail.

When laws are so blatantly disregarded by all parties involved, maybe they were never laws at all.

NPA Outdoor Operates Illegal Signage Too

Residents of the West Village live in a quaint area for the most part free of advertising signage. When the above sign at the corner of Washington and Charles st. popped up out of nowhere after a construction barrier surrounding this lot was removed, residents called in at least a few complaints, including #1247480. That construction barrier once held illegal wildposting signage like that pictured below. When that was removed it was clearly time for NPA Outdoor to put up this illegal 24'x8' "dedicated location". Thanks guys.