Think anything… (Adbusters: Tony de Marco)
This news is a year old but its new to me. Sao Paolo, the world’s 4th biggest city, banned most forms of outdoor advertising in January of 2007. After a little research I found out that four US states (Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine) also have bans on billboards.
Shameless has been doing a lot of writing about about the advertising world’s negative portrayals of women (here, here, and here).
Is this kind of ban a possibility in Canadian cities? Is it a form of censorship? Anyone been to Sao Paolo since the ban went into effect?
Personally, I would love to walk and bike around my city without feeling like my brain is being invaded by every bus shelter, garbage bin, highway-side lawn ad, and billboard I see.
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three comments
Personally I think that this is only censorship if it was banned because of a specific message that was being put out. I can't really say whether or not I like the idea of that kind of change because on one hand I enjoy some kinds of advertisement because it provides some kind of conversation starter at times, but on the other hand there is the sexism in advertising that I seriously do NOT appreciate.
Posted by Brianne
August 9, 2008, 7:15 PM
Last year I spent 2 months in rural Spain, with occasional forays into larger cities. During that time, I saw about 5 minutes of television and no radio that was meaningless to me since I don't speak Castillian. Because I speak no Spanish and was entirely unfamiliar with all Spanish products, what very little advertising I did see (the labels at the grocery store), had little effect on me. For the first time in my life, my mind was clear and focussed only on what I desire. Instead of having artificial poverty and lack pushed on me by advertisers offering "solutions" to the artificial "problems" they create, I was free to examine my own heart's desire. For the first time in my life, I could identify my appetites and satisfy them simply and easily.
I didn't realize why things were so much easier until I was in a bigger city was overtaken by a "Burger King" sign and characteristic building. It was horrifying how suddenly a huge chain of memes yanked me from inside. It awakened a huge reservoir of false hunger created by years of exposure to advertising. It filled me with internal conflict and I wasted all kinds of mental energy fighting the advertising. What a waste of time and life energy.
Posted by Jen
August 10, 2008, 1:40 PM
Now that I'm back home, on the battlefield again, fighting the parts of me that are conditioned to respond to advertising, I miss the freedom and simplicity to choose for myself. To think "I want melon, to find melon, to eat melon, to be satisfied by melon." Here it is like I see a pornographic video of burger with post-coital voice-over telling me I want it. Then I think, "Oh, I'd like to feel that way, maybe a burger will soothe me, but wait, I am not needing soothing, or maybe I do, but is a burger the best choice, oh but it looks so good, but I know the reality does not compare to the ad, the food is processed and made with haste and I will feel unsatisfied at the end of it, because it's not really food. It is not nourishing fuel." This mini-battle is triggered by every bloody ad. It makes an argument and you are forced to counter. It is such a waste of my time. I could be thinking about anything else. It breaks down the relationship between authentic appetite and authentic satiation. It obscures the distinction between need and want. It is poison for the soul.
In northern Spain, the stores have signs that are tiny (or non-existent!) since everyone in town knows where the store is, and what it has. Often no shop windows since they would let the heat in and there is no need to air condition, unless you have silly amounts of unshaded windows. The streets are not lit up at night with back lit advertising. The traditional culture encourages you to know what you want before you go into a store. It is a culture of conservation, not consumption until fiesta season then everyone splashes out lavishly as a community.
Oh dear, I have saddened myself. I have so much pity for our sick culture and the fact that it is to spreading and destroying other ways of life. We have no idea what we're missing, how trapped and impoverished we really are.
Posted by Jen
August 10, 2008, 1:41 PM
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