They take the piss out of you every day….
Sep 12th, 2008 by nancyzimmerman
One of the most aesthetically pleasing, and intellectually stimulating blogs in Vancouver, hackd, posted this. I repost in its entire perfection (heads up: a bit of cussing):
People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.
Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.
update: thanks, ineaquitas, for pointing out that this is a quote from grafitti artist banksy.
Nice sentiment, but the legal fees will be yours too when they come after you once you “take, re-arrange and re-use” and “do whatever you like with it.”
The best way to fight advertising, in my opinion, is to ignore it. That’s what the advertisers are desperately trying to avoid. Learn to tune out advertising; it’s hard to do at first because it’s so in-your-face, but after awhile it becomes like white noise, in the background. Anything else gives the advertisers exactly what they want: your attention.
Wow, I am humbled. Thank you for the kind words.
Just for clarification—the words are not mine, but Banksy’s, one of the world’s best-known graffiti artists. Certainly his opinion is biased, and many view graffiti as vandalism rather than artistic manifestation; that is for each to decide. I side with him, however, on hitting corporations and the advertisers that serve them as much as possible; not just on the streets, with their cacophony of ads and the ‘idols’ they try to sell. All media is inundated with advertisements, and I fear our society is not shaping itself from within, by the people, but is rather shaped by whomever can buy the most popularity for their products through the most advertisement for their products. And I think simply tuning out is not helping, either—marketers succeed at finding new ways of grabbing your attention, always becoming more and more intrusive in the process.