In April 2009 a group of artists took to the streets for a ‘New York street advertising takeover’. Finding it difficult to locate spaces free from advertising Jordan Seiler of Public Ad Campaign organized the event in which over 80 artists participated in transforming 126 billboards in exchange for the individual artists work.
“Public Ad Campaign acts on the assumption that public space and the public's interaction with that space is a vital component of a city's health. By visually altering and physically interacting with the public environment, residents become psychologically invested in their community.
Outdoor advertising is the primary obstacle to open public communications. By monetizing public space, outdoor advertising has monopolised the surfaces that shape our shared environment. Private property laws protect the communications made by outdoor advertising while systematically preventing public usage of that space. “
The quote above is taken from the Public Ad Campaign’s blog explain the point that by law the advertisements were protected but working behind the ethics that they were placed on illegal billboards made it systematically okay to white wash over the advertisements in replacement for artists work.
Seiler has found a loophole in the law and created a platform to advertise his and other creative work while at the same time staying true to their cause. The artists involved have been able to use the platforms to great effect as people would stop and take notice of a piece of art work on a wall more than thousands of the same posters plastered on there. It is also a issue that could cause debates into the ethics behind the project while transforming a usually bleak and boring space into essentially a piece of art.
Below are a few examples of the completed billboards with the artists work.
Images and research taken from www.publicadcampaign.com/index.php, www.coolhunting.com/culture/new-york-street.php
