Graffiti/Street Art vs. Advertising (part 1) – Illegal Advertising

Graffiti/Street Art vs. Advertising (part 1) – Illegal Advertising

October 6, 2008, 7:43 am
Filed under: Ramblings | Tags: Advertisements, Advertising, Al Sharpton, Al Sharpton Sucks, Billboards, Buenos Aires, Corparate Vandals, Corporations, Fuck You, Graffiti, Illegal, Illegal Advertising, Maine, New York, NY, NYC, Rate, Sao Paolo, Tats Cru, Vermont, Washington DC

Some people look at graffiti as an “eyesore”. But many of us don’t have such a problem with advertising. Just because it is paid for by some corporation, does that justify it being there? Is somebody’s mural (or even tags) really worse than a big billboard telling you what garbage to eat, crappy fashions to wear, car to drive, etc ? Or even worse.. I remember the day I was trying to quit smoking – waiting at a bus stop with a huge Newport billboard staring down at me – torture!. And that was a LEGAL ad.

Turns out, ALOT of advertising is ILLEGAL.

Illegal Ad on the flat iron building. I love this building. Imagine coming to NY as a tourist and seeing this landmark architecture. Yeah that would be a nice picture. photo: Municipal Art Society

Wanna go to the park to escape the city for a few or maybe a picnic with the girl? photo: IllegalBillboards.org

Some of this advertising is more than a visual problem. Here’s scafolding, with the weight of an illegal Helio ad, crushing a few cars.  Luckily noone was injured. photos: Gothamist.com

Many of these posters that you see on construction sites are illegal.

Rockstar Games sticker (“IV”) going over the homie  “Rate“‘s tag. photo: Corporate Vandals blog

While these corporate vandals are doing whatever they want, we have assholes like media whore Al Sharpton painting over LEGAL graffiti.
photos: NY Daily News

“Consume, dont think about expressing yourself.” …Something is definately wrong here.

A few interesting facts..

– New York City arrested 3,786 graffiti writers last year. They arrested 0 illegal advertisers.

– Vermont, Maine, Hawaii, Alaska, and Washington D.C. bans billboards.

– Buenos Aires, Argentina recently removed 40 thousand billboards (60% of their billboards) to fight “visual pollution”.

– Sao Paolo, Brazil BANNED all commercial advertising in 2007. They have also LEGALIZED Graffiti.

RELATED POSTS:
Graffiti/Street Art vs. Advertising (part 2) – Ron English
Graffiti/Street Art vs. Advertising (part 3) – the Graffiti Research Lab vs. Advertising
Graffiti/Street Art vs. Advertising (part 4) – Augor

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