This Space Available: A Movement Against Outdoor Ads

TalentZoo.com | Flack Me | Digital Pivot | Beneath the Brand

Archives | Categories

By: Dwayne W. Waite Jr.

Advertising is under attack, again. This time the attackers are a group of amateur documentary filmmakers, releasing a film called "This Space Available," which is what people are calling "a grassroots movement against visual pollution." The group believes that the billboards and wall posters in cities are polluting the space we live in, and it is the right of the public (they of course, taking the lead) to take their space back.

Yes, in the two-minute trailer, you can see the group painting over billboards, ripping posters off and replacing the space with art, and later see some of their supplies be confiscated by police and them being arrested.

Below is the trailer video:

David Burn of AdPulp, who originally broke the story, questioned the claims of this ambitious group. With the economic meltdown in the U.S., Occupy Wall Street raging on, and not to mention the upcoming water shortage, wealth discrepancy, costs of a college education rising, and a homelessness issue, we highly doubt that "visual pollution" is at the top of minds of the everyday consumer. Sure, people are angry at big brands right now, but to say they are upset because they can see a billboard from a public park is farther from the truth than we think.

In the story, though, Burn brings up an interesting point of how we as a society define public and private space. Is a booth at a bus stop public domain? What about a side of a building? If they are public spaces, then what right does the public have to the material that is placed in or on that space? This question opens the debate about a social contract in advertising: Can the public tear down a message of a company in a certain space if they disagree with its presence? That is quite the slippery slope, but this conversation would be very interesting.

As we've said again and again, advertising is the language of business, so if the public goes out and tears down billboards and posters, is the public infringing on the rights of businesses to spread their messages? We think it could be argued as such, and if that argument holds, it would be the movement doing the businesses an injustice.

Advertising, and the lack thereof, does have its respective place in society. The norms we've created have made billboards and other out-of-home advertising not only acceptable, but expected. To see a group that proclaims that this activity has exceeded the threshold and demands the business sector to reverse its steps is very interesting.

What are your thoughts? Does this group have a point?

blog comments powered by Disqus

About the Author

Dwayne W. Waite Jr. is partner and principal at JDW: The Charlotte Agency, a marketing and advertising shop in Charlotte, NC. He enjoys consumer behavior, economics, and football.

Beyond Madison Avenue on