Questioning the idea that public spaces should be for sale. Civic vandalism to challenge the billboard's legitimacy as an advertising medium. No opt out, etc etc etc. They did 36 installations in 5 cities in 5 days. What is the boundary between art and activism? They tried to expose the mechanics of the advertising industry. Why is there so much advertising in our public space? A common defense is that advertising is information and it is a benign service. Peer into the origins of the advertising industry. Freud's nephew wrote a book called propoganda where he basically laid out the mechanics of modern advertising. Edward Bernays. People must be trained to desire rather than to need. Paul Mazer, Lehman Brothers. Yeah. That is gross. How does society tell stories about itself? Advertising exploits genuine meaningful human experience by linking them to products. Advertising helps shape culture and we mustn't naively think that it is a mirror... well of course. Every part of culture is simultaneously a mirror and an influencer. That's life. Studies show that most people in Europe think advertising sucks and that it puts stupid pressure on young people in particular to conform to social tribes through consumerism. Conceptions of beauty problem also. Talking about the Dove chubby models ad. They are basically saying that it is not possible for advertising to be ethical. It is simply and plainly incompatible. This is true. The impact of consumer culture on our planet is also impossibe to sustain. Sao Palo went after visual pollution. Removed public advertising and legalized street art. Amazing. 70 pre cent of Sao Palo residents back it fully. We should be promoting alternatives to public space advertising. We should think of ourselves as citizens not consumers. Advetising is ro reviled it's almost fun to try to defend it, but I have to admit that I despise the co-opting of civic space in this way.