A Fake Zuckerberg Video Challenges Facebook’s Rules

VIA: The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Two weeks ago, Facebook declined to remove a doctored video in which the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, seemed to drunkenly slur her speech. Over the weekend, two British artists released a doctored video of Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, as a sly comment on the spread of false information online. More [HERE]

ART FIGHTING CONSUMERISM - CREATING IN AD PLACES

VIA: Virtute

In a neoliberal world dictated by the cult of the image and the fantasies it generates, how can one escape the visual pollution? Advertising, inherent in consumerism, saturates our gaze, our existence. More and more collectives, associations, tend to be interested in the visual nuisance. How to end a public space punctuated by advertising? How to integrate art in the streets? To denounce the discomfort of a sleeping society is the characteristic of these protestors.

More [HERE]

A Definitive "How To" Guide Brought To You By Brandalism

Beyond helping spearhead one of the largest anti-advertising campaigns to date under the umbrella agency Subvertiser's International along with Vermibus, Kyle Magee, Proyecto Squaters, and many others, Brandalism just released this definitive guide to ad hacking. Get started creating your own cultural discourse in lieu of commercial concerns by downloading the "How To" guide [HERE]

Book review: Advertising Shits In Your Head

This book review is much better than I might write and is less biased for my lack of participation. :) 

VIA: Transition Network

Advertising Shits In Your Head (no author is given), is a pocket-sized book, but it’ll burn a hole in any pocket you put it in. It’s a powerful tirade against advertising and what it does to our minds, to our culture, to our planet. But not content to sit and fulminate about it, it is a book that’s about action, about actively reclaiming our mental environment. As Banksy puts it: More [HERE]

How advertising shits in your head

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$

VIA: Huck magazine

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]

Anti-Advertising History? That's Historic!

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.

Brandalism activists unveil Global Ad Hack Manifesto at Glastonbury Festival Advertising shits in your head

You might remember the Special Patrol Group from their subversive Bullshit Jobs ads on the London Underground or the #Dontvote posters that appeared across the capital in the days before last year’s general election. 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. 

VIA: Crestview Bulletin

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]

Switch Sides Campaign

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!

VIA: Brandalism

We’re glad to see our posters piqued your interest…. More [HERE]

Is the Poster Dead, or Just Remediated?

I am extremely excited to be a part of the 50th Warsaw International Poster Biennale coming up this June. A huge thanks to Vermibus for introducing me to David Crowley, the curator and mind behind this unique exhibition which looks like as if it will honor the posters role in political activism while investigating the new forms it has taken in an increasingly digital, and mediated environment. 

Professor David Crowley, Head of Critical Writing in Art & Design, has a long-term research interest in the poster as both a design object and a means of communication. RCA Blog talked to David about his curation of the fiftieth Warsaw International Poster Biennale in June 2016, and the changing faces of poster design and dissemination in the digital twenty-first century. More [HERE]

Brandalism 2015 and the COP21

Last Friday November 27th, the Brandalism project pulled off the largest single Ad Takeover action ever. Some 80 artists were asked to submit works which were then printed and installed by a team of activists, resulting in over 600 individual ad takeovers. This unprecedented event took place on Black Friday, and directly ahead of the COP21 Climate negotiations taking place in Paris. Artists were asked to make works which spoke about climate change as the action was not only about advertisings role in our public spaces, but also about using the private advertising infrastructure to speak truth to the powers gathering in Paris to decide the fate of our planet.

The recent Brandalism action works in two ways that I think are worth taking a second to discuss. First, while advertising remains an integral part of our social fabric, creating and reiterating our culture back at us in an endless loop of dissemination and reception, the role it plays in fueling the issues which underly our climate crisis have not been widely discussed. Conspicuous consumption and the relentless renewal of products and services offered by, and needed in order to sustain capitalisms endless growth models, is in no small way responsible for the current crises our planet faces as we inch closer and closer to overshooting the carbon budget which would keep our planet under the 2degree estimates climate scientist believe will avert catastrophic planetary warming. This means that we must address our insatiable need for more and more stuff if we are going to create a collective society whose demands for goods will align with how much we can actually produce. This doesn't mean that you can't have new things, the benefits of modern technology and manufacturing, or must live a stoic life of abstinence from the goods and services that our society produces. But it does mean that we must address how much we choose to consume individually and weigh heavily our needs for what capitalism has to offer. Advertising as a medium, aims to disrupt a nuanced and practical analysis of your individual needs. Its objective is to create desire regardless of the implications of that desire on our society at large and this is in fundamental conflict with the interest of our planet. By illegally removing advertising on the street and replacing it with messages that address our climate issues, the Brandalism project is fundamentally rejecting the role advertising plays in our society and re-imaginging a world in which its influence is kept in line with our collective needs. If we are going to tackle the major issues of our day, advertisings influence on our collective psyche must be mitigated so that we can more appropriately discuss what, and how much we will consume individually. A good start to this mitigation would be admitting that advertising plays a negative role in our society by fueling over consumption and reducing its impact is of the utmost importance.

The second aspect of the Brandalism project that I think is worth noting is that beyond questioning advertisings role in our society, the Brandalism project has re-imagined how our public infrastructure should be used and what types of conversations are appropriate for our public spaces. Most, if not all of the artworks/critical messages created by the participating artists, are social statements which do not have an institutionalized venue for communication in public space. Protests against how our society is moving forward are often relegated to marches, or individual commentary that take place outside of normal public behavior. Public space, by definition is the arena in which our collective goals and interests can be expressed to one another in a democratic and meaningful way. It is in this venue that our individual opinions, put together, create public opinion and we must foster this type of democratic discussion at every turn if we are to have our collective voices create a singular voice of our collective interests. To use our public spaces for advertising, and the interests of commerce is to deny public spaces role as our collective soap box and to privilege commercial speech over our individual interests. The Brandalism project, by using the public infrastructure that typically holds commercial media, for critical dialogue, re-purposes public space for its intended purpose. This is no small feat and by setting an example of a more properly function public space and civic infrastructure, the Brandalism project imagines a world in which we use our public spaces to address the most pressing issues of our time. While I don't believe that our public spaces must always be used to discuss such lofty goals, it surely doesn't hurt and a public space in which we can openly discuss larger societal issues is one in which we may also discuss some of the smaller issues which we deem to be important.

To say that the Brandalism project was a success would be an understatement, but like all critical dialogues created by civil disobedience projects, its call to arms must be met with continued support. Fundamentally changing advertisings role in our public spaces should be one of the priorities that social activists have on thier agenda. Not only does advertising negatively contribute to our consumption behavior but it actively creates commercial conversations in venues which should be used for public discussions of the problems of our current days. Our public spaces should provide us with vigorous opportunities for debate and public discussions, not opportunities for commercial hypnosis that prevents even the most critical thinkers from seeing the world as it is and taking action to change it for the better. 

Huffington Post - World Leaders Bombarded By Art Protest At Paris Climate Talks
The Independent - COP21: ‘Brandalism’ activists post satirical adverts around Paris to protest climate change advertising 
BBC - COP21: Eco activists Brandalism launch Paris ad takeover

A Critique of Our Intentions Worth Taking Seriously

Kyle Magee runs a site called Global Liberal Media Please, that basically chronicles his very serious protest against outdoor advertising and its role in the corporate takeover of what should be a global media democracy, but is instead privately funded entertainment in service of global capitalism. He gets arrested, and pleads his case as a serious public protest against a failing media system that is encouraging the devastation of our planet and the subjugation of our masses. He does this through the court system and finds himself in jail, locked up for expressing his very dire concerns about how our shared public environment is being misused. His incarceration largely for the temporary and very reversible damage to a few outdoor advertising structures owned by large multinational companies. It is kind of a travesty and to someone like me a constant reminder that at the heart of what I call an art project is a very serious issue whose resolution would have widespread benefits for everyone. 

Kyle wrote a criticism of the Brandalism project, of which I was a part, not as an art critique but as a political critique encouraging a dialogue. He can be rough around the edges if you have thin skin but every word he has written rings true to me. I hope his concerns are taken seriously as his actions have proved him to be a figure who stands up for what he does and believes. 

VIA: GLMP

it is encouraging that so many people (including artists) are becoming increasingly aware that the domination of public space by for-profit advertising is a serious problem, one that can and should be protested against.

brandalism isn’t the only organised bunch of naughty street artists who are willing to clean up for-profit ads in public space even though the stupid law says no — there’s also, to mention just a couple, the public ad campaign in new york and the empty project of madrid — and there is also quite a few street artists (many of whom involved in brandalism) going out on their own to replace for-profit ads with the real expressions of actual human beings who, presumably, do not wish to cause you any psychological/physical harm that happens to be profitable. More [HERE]

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. 

Brandlaism Project's - Cultural Values

The Brandalism project has a few new articles on culture and advertising that are definitely worth taking a look at. Below is the start of one I found interesting but take a look at them all. Also, keep an eye on these guys becuase with dedication this deep I dont see them going anywhere soon.

VIA Brandalism Website

As artists we want to understand our culture – the spaces and places where society tells its stories about itself. These are the same spaces and places where our individual and collective values are expressed. In western culture it is advertising that dominates these spaces.

If we look at the statistics for 2011, we can see how much of our culture is influenced by advertising – 100% of television revenue comes from advertising, 100% of radio funding, 80% of our newspapers and around 50% of our magazines are funded by advertising revenues. Sponsorship by commercial companies underwrites most of our cultural institutions and public services including our museums, galleries, transport networks and universities. This subsidization of public institutions and services can be beneficial however it means that a large amount of our cultural spaces and places are controlled by large multinational corporations because they control the flow of money and with this power they get to say who says what, where. This leaves little democratic control and influence in the hands of the public. More [HERE]