Mantis in London

Mantis is a street artist I've come across that does a fair amount of work over public advertising structures. The work seems to often deal directly with the content of the advertisement as a sort of culture jamming exercise. The project shown is the only one I know of that seems to have erased the entire advertisement for another image. Regardless Mantis obviously sees the public advertising frame as an extension of his or her own messaging system and for that I am very excited. www.themantisproject.co.uk

Paris-why not?

I visited Paris in May this year and whenever I travel I watch public advertising pretty closely, though not with the intention of doing any work. Its a flaw and I know it but thats the way it is. Given that, I could not resist the temptation when I realized that mere magnets held the plastic covers over a large portion of street level small billboards in the downtown area. I stole a few posters and grabbed some supplies from a local arts and crafts store and made a series of these on a public ping pong table. Why not?

Bus Shelter similarities-Paris/New York

The image on the left is from a NYC bus shelter ad and the one on the right is from a Parisian bus shelter ad. Its interesting to note how global ad culture really is evolving as one. Despite the differences in products and possibly advertising companies, the tactics are relatively similar. Advertising spans all cultures as the dissemination industry no capitalist nation can do without and is thus more or less a global product.