Six Billboards "Liberated" in Bristol
bristolian | 10.07.2006 10:15 | Analysis | Culture | Free Spaces
Last week 6 billboards were felled in Bristol
We are Bristol residents, sick of advertising hoardings making a mess of our streets, cluttering our skylines and blocking our views. Bristol residents have complained for years about these billboards, erected against our wishes but the Council won’t listen. We are taking non-violent direct action to tear down and remove unwanted billboards from our communities. Last night we removed six of these eyesores from Bristol
Walk through the streets of Easton, St Paul’s, Bedminster and St Werburghs and you find hundreds of these monstrosities on every main road, selling us cars, beauty products, credit cards and soft drinks. But how many billboards do you see in Clifton where the ad execs live? They are happy to litter our communities with their vulgar images but they won’t have them in their own backyard.
Adverts play on our hopes, fears and insecurities to serve just one purpose - to sell us products regardless of how much we really need them. They use irrelevant imagery with no connection to the product they are selling. Look at the current Coca-Cola and Mars adverts, using England flags throughout the World Cup to create the illusion that to buy their product is in some way patriotic. What do a fizzy drink and a sugary chocolate bar have to do with England’s success? Absolutely nothing but the admen and the corporations are making a killing from it.
If it’s not our nationalism they capitalise on it is our insecurities about our image. They realise that if we feel inadequate we’ll buy products to make us feel and look better. They use images of airbrushed models to reinforce gender stereotypes; to the adman you‘re only a woman if you’re stick-thin, have a big chest (if not you’ll need to buy a wonderbra), a pink mobile phone and covered in designer makeup. Likewise you are only a man if you are toned, tanned, wear Calvin Klein aftershave and Dolce & Gabbana and drive a bigger, faster car than other men.
As the Council continues to allow companies to erect billboards it continues to clamp down on “anti-social vandals” who spray “graffiti”. However often graffiti is the only option, the only way alienated individuals can express themselves in our society. What is commonly called “art” is in reality elitist, confined to sterile galleries which only display work from “artists” privileged enough to go through art school, only to be viewed by those who can afford it. The real vandals are the advertisers who erected these billboards without our permission, often without even planning permission.
Wouldn’t it be better if instead of these ugly billboards our public space was used for art, for people to be able to express themselves with beautiful and challenging images, words and sculptures rather than for images aimed only at making more profits for fat cat shareholders? "
bristolian
Additions
More billboard action from bristol.indymedia.org
10.07.2006 18:42
Get a life - get a bike
Come rain come shine come climate change
Love profit
And now the warmongers have made it hell
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Simon
debate
11.07.2006 11:01
- the "rubble" left is as much of an eyesore as the original billboard
- cycle paths were blocked
- the "choppers" should have recycled the wood
- billboards are "soft" targets
- as one said: "do you div,s think this will stop adverts.all that happens is they get rebuilt useing new timber that the planet dosn,t need, makes the builders of the boards richer,and affects the income of hard working family billposters don,t you think you should rethink your campain?"
Given Bristol's track record of bitching and infighting over tactics it's hardly surprising that there's a lot of debate over this, i'd be interested to hear what other people think about this.
Also, it was reported in the Bristol Evening Post that the billboard company are unaware of this happening elsewhere, is this true or have there been other fellings elsewhere?
vlad