An Artist Swapped 'If You See Something, Say Something' Subway Posters With Pleas for Civic Engagement

VIA: City Lab

On Wednesday night, an artist swapped out a handful of MTA’s iconic “If You See Something, Say Something” subway posters with a more politically charged call to action. City Lab [HERE]

Gothamist [HERE]

MTA's 'See Something Say Something' Ads Have Been Remixed (Now With 100% Less Fearmongering)

Simple, effective and all around proper public participation in the curation of our shared environment. Bravo to those at the helm of this project. 

VIA: The Village Voice

The MTA's long-running "If You See Something, Say Something" ad campaign has already been through nine official iterations over its lifetime. Now, thanks to some anonymous New Yorkers, there's a tenth, unofficial version, that attempts to repurpose a campaign born of the fear and suspicion of the 9/11 era into a statement of solidarity in the Age of Trump. More [HERE]

Subway Therapy Project Returning Public Space to its Utopic Potential

Be it graffiti, street art, public art, or just plain scrawl, the need to mark and make meaning in public space is intrinsic to its proper function for both the individual and the collective. By monopolizing the walls of our city, and normalizing commercial discourse over public interests, advertising erodes our ability, desire, and right to use public space in meaningful and impactful ways. The Subway Therapy project at Union Square is a fine example of necessity overcoming expectation, and of public space returning to its utopic potential. More info about the Subway Therapy project [HERE]

Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge Finalists Announced

The finalists for the Reinvent Payphones design challenge have been announced and their proposals can be seen [HERE]. All but one of the 6 finalists proposed what is essentially an interactive information kiosk. I obviously love the idea of repurposing NYC payphones for better uses and would be excited to see NYC's broken phones wrapped in advertising, converted to relevant digital kiosks that help people navigate their city and interact with it on some very basic levels. Whether or not any of these proposals will be carried out as they are shown at this stage of the design process, one cannot say. These are in fact just vague proposals with few real world restrictions and no mention of budgets, or other pertinent issues.

That said, while all of the proposals suggest that the kiosks will be widely used for way finding, internet access, phone calls, emergency response and other relevant pedestrian needs in the 21st century, none go into quite as much detail as the I/0 proposal by none other than TITAN360. In case you dont know, Titan360 if an OOH advertising company that has a huge stake in the phonebooth inventory around NYC, collecting ad revenue from a lions share of the 11,000 plus remaining booths. They seem to have taken this contest the most seriously, producing a glossy 5 minute video to explain how I/0 and the average citizen will interact.
Tasked with what sounds like reinventing Titan Media in general, Dave Etherington, puts in some facetime to explain just how revolutionary the Titan360 reinvention will be. At minute 3:10 Dave explains how the I/0 facade has the same potential to be used by a major brand as it does by a local mom and pop shop. Generously, he explains that mom and pop shops cant afford the front page of the NY Times, or an ad slot in the Super Bowl, but somehow can afford the price of advertising on these new, innovative, Titan 360 owned, ad kiosks. I dont see how this new digital kiosk will differ in pricing from the traditional phonebooth, but if history is our guide, the transition to digital always comes with higher revenue for those selling ad space.

But that isn't the point, we shouldnt be talking about price points at all because at minute 2:20 Titan360 suggests (visually at least) that these kiosks will be open for public usage in unprecedented ways. By showing a young girl posting a hand drawn picture of her lost kittens through an internet connected device, Titan360 is suggesting that these reinvented phonebooths will be free for the public to use for their own purposes. (Unless that little girl is being charged a service fee, which I dont bleieve is implied) It is a wild and unprecedented suggestion that can only really be made in this new digital age. Could we all have some level of curatorial access to a piece of visual public infrastructure?

What if, instead of the multinational corporate iconography that makes every place the same place, NYC's kiosks of the future culled public content and an array of local data so that the kiosks not only served the needs of the community but reflected a neighborhoods personal identity through the aggregation of locally relevant personal content. Titan360 suggests, and visualizes this possibility for us in their video and if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. The likelihood that Titan360, a massive OOH company, would invest in infrastructure that they wouldn't use for paid media content is ludicrous and I fear the little girl in this video will never find her kittens.

But all joking aside, an open and democratically share public visual environment isn't a pipe dream. Titan360, or any other company for that matter, is only allowed to implement their ideas on our public streets with our approval. Demanding an ad free public environment and better yet, a locally relevant messaging hub for our communities, is our duty as citizens trying to live in the best place we can possibly imagine.

B.U.G.A.U.P. New Website

Kid Zoom just made me aware of the fact that B.U.G.A.U.P. launched an updated website last September. If you visit PublicAdCampaign and don't know about B.U.G.A.U.P. you absolutely must go to thier site and read up. They formed a year before I was born and are attributed with the ban on alcohol and tobacco ads in Australia. They are an inspiration to PublicAdCampaign and to the anti outdoor advertising movement in general.

What I find amazing is that by banning outdoor tobacco and alcohol ads, our cities have admitted to the negative effect outdoor comercial messaging can have on our citizens if the messages are unproductive or harmful. With this understanding in place one would imagine that we would find other industries which plague our social fabric by promoting overt conspicuous consumption and intrinsic value systems, and in finding them request their removal. For a paper on advertisings general effects on our behavior and a good reason to ban outdoor commercial media in general, see this post.

Outdoor Advertising Assoiation of America-Self Service

The OAAA, or Outdoor Advertising Association of America, is an organization "Working to promote, protect and advance the outdoor advertising industry".

One of the things the OAAA does, is provide its members with Public Service Announcements like the one pictured above. [More Here] These designs are available in almost every imaginable size for every imaginable advertising frame and venue across the united states. Everything from phone kiosks to billboards are available as PDF downloads. The OAAA encourages their members to use these free PSA's when they have empty space and or are trying to fill some PSA quota. Here is what they say about their recent campaign.

Recession 101 is the latest public service campaign available to OAAA members. OAAA members and printers are encouraged to donate space and materials to post this uplifting and inspirational creative in their markets.

While most PSA's are for non-profit and charitable institutions, this recent campaign seems oddly self serving. I know the country is failing and the whole world is falling apart as stories begin to unfold. The advertising industry isn't exempt, and is going through notoriously bad times as companies cut non-essential spending rapidly. To me the these ads look like pleas to corporate America. They ask companies to get back in the game and continue spending absurd amounts of money on promotion instead of building tangible worth. A proper PSA would propose fiscal policies which will help us get out of this current slump as opposed to making light of the problem we are facing.

This is what the OAAA has to say about themselves.

The OAAA is the lead trade association representing the outdoor advertising industry. Founded in 1891, the OAAA is dedicated to promoting, protecting and advancing outdoor advertising interests in the US. With nearly 1,100 member companies, the OAAA represents more than 90 percent of industry revenues.There are five main OAAA membership categories:

General
Any company that owns or operates billboards in the United States.

Other Outdoor Media
Any company that sells space for advertising on street furniture, transit or alternative outdoor media displays.

Associate
Any company or individual providing services or products to the outdoor advertising industry. Includes supplier, financial, and attorney members.

Affiliate
Any company or individual using the outdoor medium and/or supporting the goals of the outdoor advertising industry. Includes advertisers, ad agencies, media buying services, highway advertisers, state outdoor associations and other trade groups and coalitions.

International
Any company or individual doing business outside of the United States and interested in the OAAA, and its services.

The OAAA's strategic focus is on government relations, marketing, communications, membership, and operations.