Billboard-sized portraits of ordinary people have Providence residents talking.

I cannot say how much I love and believe in this project. It only happens that the artist teaches at my Alma Mater and the project is happening in Providence Rhode Island. 

VIA: Upworthy

A mechanic named Fernando was thrilled when he got a call that his picture had been blown up and installed on the side of a building.

He wasn't a fashion model or trying to sell anything. He was a mechanic shop owner from Guatemala living in Providence, Rhode Island, and this was all very new to him. It's not every day you see yourself on the side of a building looking out over a busy downtown.More [HERE]

The Crisis of Attention Theft—Ads That Steal Your Time for Nothing in Return

Tim Wu, author of The Attention Merchants has written a compelling article for Wired magazine essentially accusing much of todays public advertising industry of theft. Right on Wu!

VIA: Wired 

By now, it is pretty well understood that we regularly pay for things in ways other than using money. Sometimes we pay still with cash. But we also pay for things with data, and more often, with our time and attention. We effectively hand over access to our minds in exchange for something “free,” like email, Facebook, or football games on TV. As opposed to “paying” attention, we actually “spend attention,” agreeing to the view ads in exchange for something we really want.  Read more [HERE]

OX continues to make the best site specific advertising takeover work that I am aware of. I cannot begin to tell you how happy it makes me. OX's Billboards Project in Cologne from OPEN WALLS Gallery on Vimeo.

Mississippi Governor Decries Billboard by Artist-Led Super PAC

VIA: Hyperallergic

The artist-led For Freedoms super PAC has erected a billboard on Highway 80 outside Pearl, Mississippi that features President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s slogan “Make American Great Again” atop a well-known Civil Rights-era photograph by Spider Martin of a confrontation on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. More [HERE]

Billboards bridging two realities

VIA: Vandalog

Over 2.3 million people are currently held in American prisons, jails, and detention facilities. Many of them will be there for years, even for life. In most states, even juveniles can be put in solitary confinement, and visitation is becoming more difficult and expensive. It’s another world, largely cut off from the rest of us. A recent series from Know Hope aims to take one small step at bridging that gap. More [HERE]

More Billboards Coming To Los Angeles? Judge Rules City’s Off-Site Sign Ban Unconstitutional

Just when I was beginning to like Los Angeles.....Ugh

VIA: Ban Billboard Blight

Los Angeles has been trying to shed its label as the country’s billboard capital, but Clear Channel and other companies pushing to put up new digital billboards got a major boost this week when a Superior Court judge ruled that the city’s ban on new off-site signs violates the free speech guarantee of the California state constitution. More [HERE]

NPA/Contest Promotions on the Brink of Collapse 4 Years After NYSAT

video footage taken early August 2013.

PublicAdCampaign readers will know that we squared off with a company called National Promotions of America, or more recently, Contest Promotions in the past. While we take issue with all forms of advertising in public space for numerous reasons discussed on this blog at length, NPA found itself a target for a large scale action due to their bold illegal advertising business model in NYC. After 4 years of legal gymnastics costing the citizens of NYC what I can only imagine to be millions of dollars in legal fees and precious DOB sign enforcement unit time and effort, it looks like karma is finally rearing its head and dishing out what is due.

A little bird that keeps me informed of important updates on NPA's trials and tribulations sent me an email recently to inform me that things were headed south...and fast. While the text below is not a quote, it does reflect the general sentiment of the troubles NPA finds itself in after acting against public interest. While I cant post the breakdown of monetary troubles NPA finds itself in, I can tell you their troubles are in the millions and the company will likely go under due to their reckless behavior and lack of respect for NYC and its residents.

John, we have a few problems that we desperately need to discuss. The NYC Department of Buildings is coming down on us hard with new violations that are classified as aggravated 1 and carry a $25,000.00 fine instead of the usual $10,000.00 if there is a previous violation that has not been corrected. Sadly they are able to attach this new violation to 61 of the 76 BA sites that we have. In fact they have attached 8 aggravated 1’s to a property that will likely have to go to court with the expectation of $200,000.00 in fines along with the $10,000.00 that already exists. I must tell you that the Landlords are getting more upset by the day and that Mary is advising us to take the signs down because she can’t control things at this point. I am afraid that if we don’t pay close attention to this, things will erupt. 

That said, the ECB and the Administrative Law Judges are becoming exhausted with our antics and seem to be siding with the Department of Buildings. I believe the claimants are undermining my testimony in an attempt to discredit my previous statements in court. We have court appearances through December of 2013 with approximately 4-7 cases every week. Unsurprisingly we have not been able to hear more than 3-4 cases each week, which means this issue will not end until well into 2014 as it stands now. Because the new violations are being written at the new aggravated level, we will go even further into 2014. These fines will add up fast and the additional penalties will make it harder for us to settle with the city. I think we should discuss this new situation immediately. . .

Most of Los Angeles's Digital Billboards Have Now Gone Dark

LA has been waging a war against Clear Channel Outdoor for nearly 6 years now, a battle which has cost the city unimaginable amounts of money. Finally today those offending digital signs which are at the center of this debacle have gone dark by court order. While I am happy to see the city of LA take back control its streets from a company who essentially thought it was above the law, I am disheartened that this battle has been waged due to the illegality of the signage and not more ideological issues about advertisings place on our city streets. One battle at a time I guess as I look forward to NPA, and CPI, finally packing their bags from NY and heading back to a city which supports its illegal flyposting business. 

VIA: LA Curbed

Notice a lack of blinky flashiness on the roads yesterday? That's because billboard companies Clear Channel Outdoors and CBS Outdoors actually turned off their digital billboards yesterday, per court order. The move is just the latest in the long-running and surprisingly kind of dramatic battle between billboard companies, other billboard companies, and the city. CBS and Clear Channel put up about 100 signs...More [HERE]

Will L.A.’s Digital Billboards Be Going Dark? And If So, When?

The hits just keep on coming. It does not matter if the company is a small time wildposting OOH like NPA outdoor, or a mega giant like CBS, the quest is for profit without consideration. Something about the practice of selling public space to the highest bidder for commercial products we all don't need, makes you act above the law. I do not understand why our cities allow OOH companies to outright bully them despite having clear set laws imposed by citizens. The fact that we spend so much to defend ourselves from these agressive business maneuvers, instead of filling our schools with more teachers, boggles my mind. The business as a whole has proven its inability to get along with our cities and our rules and should be outright banned from operating at all. We would all be better off for it. 

VIA Ban Billboard Blight

Yesterday’s California Appeals Court decision ordering the revocation of permits issued for 100 digital billboards in Los Angeles was ample cause for celebration by those who have been saying since 2006 that the backroom deal struck with Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor to allow more than 800 of the brightly-lit signs with their rapidly changing messages was illegal because it violated the city’s own ordinances. More [HERE]

The Digital Billboard Preservation Act: A Brief History

This site often focuses on the public space issues associated with outdoor advertising, aesthetics, mental health, public accessibility, consumer behavior, etc. While these are all issues which we think outdoor advertising has a net overall negative affect on, an area we often overlook is the political implications that come along with big profits. Ban Billboard Blight takes the time to fully explain the inner workings of the outdoor advertising industries quest for profit in LA, and the backside of these politics do not look good for the public at large and the political process in general when so much money is involved.

VIA: Ban Billboard Blight

Late last year I met with a small group of billboard company representatives and lobbyists for lunch at a downtown cafe. I knew that Clear Channel and other major billboard companies wanted to make a deal with the city to protect existing digital billboards and allow new ones in exchange for taking down some conventional billboards and giving the city a share of digital billboard revenue. I also knew that the purpose of the meeting was to deliver a sales pitch to me–and by extension, the communities where digital billboards are a hot-button issue–on this idea. More [HERE]

Blinded by L.A. billboards

VIA the LA Times

To settle a lawsuit, the city of Los Angeles entered into a billboard deal in 2006 that was so improper that it would have been funny were it not for the damage it did to neighborhoods, the city's pocketbook and local government's reputation for competence. More [HERE]

How Come the Billboard Companies Always Seem to Be in Cahoots with the Wrong Side?

VIA The Atlantic Cities

Billboard Intimidation of the Day: Anti-Voter Fraud Signs in Ohio and Wisconsin

Here's the latest from the voter intimidation front: over a hundred billboards in black and Hispanic neighborhoods of Cleveland, Milwaukee and Columbus that warn of the consequences of voter fraud. "VOTER FRAUD IS A FELONY," the signs read, over an image of a judge's gavel, "Up to 3 1/2 years & $10,000 fine." Voter fraud is less common than UFO sightings. Wisconsin, in the presidential election year of 2004, had seven incidents of voter fraud. More [HERE]