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Recent articles by The Saint-Just Mob
Hoochie Coochie at the Mauretania May 13 13 Games on your bike? May 10 13 Artist's Talk: Melanie Jackson Apr 26 13 Buy Bye bristol |
media and culture |
opinion/analysis
 Wednesday February 13, 2013 17:37 by The Saint-Just Mob
 Behind the Billboard is the future. With thanks to the comrades of Paris in 1968 with their - "Beneath the paving stones is the beach." |
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Comments (17 of 17)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17Come on, surely public schoolboys like you could come up with something peurile.
You normally do.
REALLY nice to see the land and what's growing on it behind that ugly advertising board thingy... thanks to the SJM :)
So gone from pithy comments on advertising boards to full out vandalism then boys.
Not worth posting this imho.
I don't think there's anything you can do about it JH, so no point getting stressed. Take it as a compliment! ;0)
Good work St Justs!
The Billboard was damaged in a road accident.
Sainte just more like!
I went to boarding school with couple of these guys.
Sebastian and Dom, they are such a hoot, good to see you continung the japes lads.
Ra Ra Ra we're going to bash the oiks!
"The Billboard was damaged in a road accident."
So please xplain what you have done worthy of posting on here
Ever
Thank you for responding to our subvert - BUY BYE.
To answer your question we utilized the accidental
damage to the Billboard for two reasons - first to
show one gain (from among many) of the eradication
of Billboards which would be in this case the possibility
of well maintained green space, while making visible
the lungs of the city.
Secondly the stripping of the ad by the Billboard
operatives allowed the play on words of the subvert
to highlight the possible pleasure of living in a world
of use value rather than exchange value. We are
however realistic in facing the fact that subvertizing
alone will hardly bring about what we want which
is the destruction of capitalism. But it is our modest
Contribution.
Behind the capitalism selling billboard is the land and nature and real living things, some will do anything to stop you thinking about the land and nature, and will try to get you to buy plastic and other polluting tat instead.
best billboard I seen lately ta
Oh yes, billboards and the subverting / subvertising of same :)
Interesting article in the Independent last year, enjoy!
An article about an artist who sneaks around London plastering verses of poetry over advertising billboards published in The Independent earlier this year elicited huge interest, gaining more than 2.5K ‘Likes’ on Facebook and starting a social networking frenzy.
Among your comments were: “I love an intelligent response to advertising. Who asked the public if we want our faces filled with adverts as we walk the streets?” and “Hooray! More of this. Everyone should start doing this to adverts”.
The relatively unknown artist responsible, Robert Montgomery from Scotland, seems to have struck a chord with readers. His verses were presented sparsely in black and white typography. They appeared overnight and passers-by, used probably to blanking out colourful sales images, either didn’t notice at all, or stopped transfixed to read the poems.
A new movement of advertising artists have followed in Montgomery's wake. Nicknamed ‘Brandalism’, because it feeds into the graffiti versus vandalism debate, it has been taken up by artists in Britain, Australia and America and elsewhere. It is, like all street art, illegal. But street artists and graffitists are boldly exploiting the convenient rectangular spaces which normally purvey L’Oreal products or the latest albums.
Twenty-six artists, including Montgomery, have now completed the world's first international collaborative “subvertising” campaign, hijacking 35 billboards across Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and London. They seek “to challenge the destructive impacts of the advertising industry” as well as to tackle its detrimental impact on issues such as body image, consumerism and debt. They are also, they say, responding to the riots last summer.
Bill Posters, who famously subverted a Nike advert of Wayne Rooney clutching shopping bags with the tagline, 'Just Loot It', says: “The advertising industry creates pressure when they manipulate our needs and desires. Pressure to have the latest gear, clothes and phones. This pressure erupted when kids took to the streets across the country to claim what they had been told that they needed.”
“We’re lab rats for ad execs who exploit our fears and insecurities through consumerism. I’m a human being, not a consumer. So by taking these billboards, we are taking these spaces back. If Sao Paolo in Brazil can ban all outdoor advertising, so can we”.
You can hardly compare sticking a couple of words on a billboard, words devoid of humour, and expect to compare them to the Subvertisers....
Just noticed this in 'thisisbristol:
Pussy billboard campaign: Residents' anger at 'sexist' and 'offensive' advert in Bristol.
A HUGE billboard on a gateway to Bristol has been labelled offensive and derogatory towards women.
The huge advertisement for an energy drink has in large letters Pussy, with smaller letters reading: "The drink is pure, it's your mind that has a problem."
Some say the billboard, on the junction of Stapleton Road and Easton Way as commuters leave the M32, is offensive and degrading to women while others believe it devalues an area that has worked hard to improve its image.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) confirmed to The Post that it has so far received 46 complaints relating to the company's nationwide advertising campaign and that a formal investigation had been launched.
A spokesman said people had complained that the adverts were offensive, overly sexual and derogatory towards women.
Concerns were also raised that children were able to see the billboards.
Former Lib Dem city councillor and owner of Pak Butchers Abdul Malik said the new billboard encouraged a negative perception of the area.
He said: "We have been working so hard with the traders association to tidy the street up and rebuild some respect and then this comes along.
"I'm tired of this attitude that anything goes on Stapleton Road. I'm certain an offensive advertising board like this wouldn't been put up in the centre around the Council House."
Katy Attwater, a pensioner from Victoria Park, contacted The Post to say she found the advert offensive.
"As you come into the city it's staring you in the face," Mrs Att- water said.
"The connotations of marketing a drink with the name Pussy makes the mind boggle.
"The ASA say it has had a lot of complaints and is looking into it but has told me it can take a long time and that there are no guarantees.
"As far as a Bristol goes, the city has no say in whether it wants it at all. I spoke to the council planners and police but they said it has nothing to do with them.
"Basically if the hoarding has permission they have no jurisdiction on what goes on it. The people in this area feel completely victimised. They feel like their area is a testing ground for stuff that advertisers would not dare put anywhere else."
Mrs Attwater, who campaigns for One Billion Rising – an organisation against violence towards women – added: "If it was a male equivalent, it wouldn't be allowed would it?
"There has been a lot of raising awareness of violence against women and I feel this sort of advert is in that class.
"In terms of sexism this advertising campaign is the worst I have ever seen.
"The company tries to blame our dirty minds but even if that was the case they have to put that thought in someone's mind and they don't care providing they are making loads of money."
A spokesman for the ASA said: "We can confirm that we have received 46 complaints regarding this advertising campaign.
"In general the complaints relate to the adverts being offensive, overly sexual and derogatory towards women.
"We can confirm that following the complaints the ASA has decided to and has launched a formal investigation."
A spokeswoman for Bristol City Council said the council only had responsibility for granting or rejecting planning permission for a billboard and had no jurisdiction for what was then placed on it.
A spokeswoman for Pussy said: "We respect everyone's right to complain. When you look further into the brand it is a great product with a name that makes it unique."
The offending image...
Having to look at Abdul Malik's mug. The twit is a LibDem former councillor, and he has the cheek to cuddle up to a legitimate protest against the sexploitation of women, at a time the LibDem's are in a government making life an absolute misery for millions of women (and men).
Never trust a politician!
Why is the word for a baby cat offensive to women ? It seems to me some people are determined to be offended at every opportunity.
Christ, remember the fuss when my nipple appeared on telly, a whole country nearly fell apart.
Surely you anarchists can handle a little seaside humour!
Not you JH though...