I understand that the city needs to generate revenue, but wrapping public transportation in standard advertising seems unfortunate (although I’m all for more situationist ad campaigns). Ubiquity is not the new exclusivity. If companies want positive brand association in subway stations (or anywhere) they are going to have to provide a service of value, ie. give everyone a free metro pass, insert play, be smart, make people smile; the bar has been raised. I have been thinking about the role of waiting in public transportation and looking at what surrounds us in the interval between here and there. I briefly considered a few possible uses of empty ad space, for example, scrolling books, subway platform exhibitions or curated subways cars by local artists. Bus stops would be a great place to communicate consumer information, especially actionable items like adding your name on the National “Do Not Call” Registry, or removing your name from bulk mailing lists (that generates 4 million tons of paper annually), those things you keep meaning to do but haven’t. Below are a few creative responses to advertising.
The Bubble Project is an open dialog via thought bubbles pasted on advertising in public space.
Add-Art is a free FireFox add-on which replaces advertising on websites with curated art images.
Light Criticism is a series of overlays on backlit advertising displays.
Poster Boy creates subway-ad mash-ups.
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