Re: virus: culture jammers

Tony Hindle (t.hindle@joney.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 9 Jul 1997 02:55:35 +0100


In message <Pine.SUN.3.96.970701193357.15202B-100000@eskimo.com>, Eva-
Lise Carlstrom <eva-lise@eskimo.com> writes
>Those of you in the Seattle area should take a look at this last
>Thursday's _Stranger_ if you haven't already. There's an article in it by
>Wm. Steven Humphreys about his adventure with a local group of memetic
>guerillas who modify billboards to undermine the advertising messages.
>Interestingly, this tactic's effect continues long after the billboard has
>been restored or replaced. Today I saw a billboard for some company's
>cellular phone service, and instantly mentally changed the "I thought I
>could live without a fax machine, too!" to their vandalized version, "I
>thought I could live without an electronic leash, too!" Mostly they
>attack cigarette ads, apparently. Similar in flavor to some of the things
>_Adbusters_ does, but, of course, outright illegal rather than merely
>annoying to the advertisers. Also broader audience, though localized.

Driving through London the other day I noticed a construction at
old street. It was an enormous iron girder structure that had the sole
purpose of holding in place 4 standard size billboards. It brought to my
mind this question
How much does it cost to rent the space on a single standard
sized (roughly 20 feet by 15 feet) billboard, does anyone know.
I saw one for cigarrette papers the other day and thought
"at 10 pence a packet they must have to persuade almost every
passer by to buy a packet for that to pay."
BTW Eva, have you seen WSH yet?.
Tony Hindle.