light criticism

"Between October 2006 and December 2006, the City of New York has removed or obscured 59 illegal banners on sidewalk sheds. In that same period, Citibank Chase was forced to remove all illegal sidewalk projections at branches around Manhattan. And now, years into NYC’s crackdown on graffiti writers and protesters, after we’ve watched our friends be detained, arrested, beat, fined, tried, and given real jail sentences, not a single corporate toy from any ad firm has had to do any time." graffiti research lab

building on cinematic vision

"Sonny Astani walked into a Westwood movie theater in 1985 and saw the film that changed his life: "Blade Runner," the science-fiction tale that imagined a dystopian Los Angeles where jet-powered cars zoom past skyscrapers covered with enormous, cinematic advertisements. Decades later, the Iranian-born businessman is determined to bring some of those futuristic images to life. His plan? Attach an animated sign 14-stories tall on the 33-story condominium project he is building in downtown L.A." David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times

Urban Adverts + Cycles

This is a fascinating nexus between advertising space, the ways that urban fabrics become increasingly monetizeable [ to their detriment?] and the provision of what many might argue should be a basic urban infrastructure: the bicycle. Here we see the financial tradeoff between the rental of the bikes, the use of the billboard spaces, and the initial investment on the part of the developer/advertiser. Perhaps there would be other ways to create the capital for the creation of such infrastructure.
- Ed Keller
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Vive la Vélorution!- Sep 20th 2007 From The Economist print edition

JCDecaux and Clear Channel Outdoor battle over urban bike-schemes
OUTDOOR advertising has become fiercely competitive and highly political. America's Clear Channel Outdoor and France's JCDecaux fought for months in negotiations with the office of the mayor of Paris, and in court, to snap up the contract for panneaux contre vélos—setting up a bicycle-rental scheme in Paris in exchange for exclusive rights to the French capital's 1,628 billboards. Although Clear Channel claims to have won “technically”, the French firm, whose founder, Jean-Claude Decaux, has close ties to the political establishment, emerged as the victor in practice this spring. JCDecaux set up the bike-rental system in record time and launched it on July 15th.

Vélib' (for vélo, or bicycle, and liberté, or freedom) has since taken Paris by storm...
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9832847