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.
While Sir Banksalot and I may not have the same overall perspective when it comes to graffiti, I must say that I actually do like what he says here. He’s got a point, and he’s made it pretty well.
We all know that 95% of advertisements out there today are complete shit. They force their message down your throat, and it’s likely a message that you don’t want to hear (you most certainly don’t choose it). They force you to judgement, and a lot of the time they have adverse effects (think: the teenage girl/guy comparing themselves to whoever is on the cover of the latest magazine, photoshopped to the 9s and 99s).
It’d be terribly hypocritical of me to say that I don’t like marketing (I am a marketing major, after all), but it comes down to permission, yeah? 98% of the time I don’t want to look at your shit. You take my favorite 22 minute TV show and convert it into 30 minute production (and you wonder why we download them). You make showing up 30 minutes late for a movie OK, because you’ve been playing commercials for 20 minutes, and trailers for another 10.
I mean, I love marketing - there’s no doubt about it. And nothing gets me more excited than marketing that really turns me onto a product - but we, as consumers, do have a choice. If I don’t want to hear what you have to say, take a hike - I don’t owe you anything (yeah, I’m talking to you, TD Canada Trust, I don’t want your damn $20/month insurance on my $1000 maximum credit card.. why don’t you try calling me a couple more times? The count is up to 6).
On the opposite end of the spectrum, give me an amazing product, an amazing campaign, something with some heart thrown in, and I’ll be your biggest fan, and advertiser. I’ll do the promoting and you can sit back and soak it up.
Yeah, I’m talking to you, TOMS.
Original quote from: Banksy, from Cut It Out (via zaschell) (via nedhepburn) (via antropofagia) (via so-treu) (via nezua) (via zuky) (via jonathan-cunningham) (via littleorphanammo) (via alohanico) (via soupsoup)
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