MAGAZINES & PRESS - COMPLETED STREET PROJECTS - PUBLIC AD CAMPAIGN BLOG

Thursday, March 25, 2010

NPA Leaves NYC For Good, Contest Promotions Still at Large

NPA wildposting removed

After speculating on NPA closing shop in New York and passing on a small portion of their illegal ad business to Contest Promotions, it was only right we get the story from a more credible source. We contacted the DOB, and a friend that will remain anonymous answered a few questions. First we would like to congratulate the DOB on their recent efforts in NYC. Wildposting and Sniping of construction sites has stopped almost everywhere and a large portion of NPA's ads have been whited out, their fate to be determined. We do hope that the DOB will continue to put pressure on Contest Promotions and not allow the meaning of 1st and 3rd party signage be manipulated for profit at the public's expense.

NPA wildposting removed
PublicAdCampaign: I am under the assumption NPA is shutting down in NY and leaving Contest Promotions to operate as many locations as they can pretend are legal. I posted my opinion on my site today and im curious if it is correct. Do you know anything about this, or do you know someone I can speak to who might know more about this?

Anonymous: Your assumption about them shutting down as NPA is correct. They recently applied to withdraw their OAC registration. While CP is a different corporate entity, there apparently is some overlap between the two. As of now, CP signs are still considered advertising, not accessory; and the DOB will not stay enforcement against such signs.

PublicAdCampaign: Lastly I must ask a personal question. Did the NYSAT civil disobedience project have any affect on this outcome, no matter how small or large. We are planning on going to other cities with similar projects and we would love to find some inspiration in these recent events.

Anonymous: Although coincidentally timed at around the same time, our enforcement efforts were unrelated to the NYSAT activities as wildpostings had been on our radar for awhile. After we began to control the large flex signage (as best we could), we moved on to the smaller, street level ads w/ an enforcement sweep in April 2009 that included over a hundred locations in Manhattan.

Honestly, you’d have to ask NPA if your activities had an effect on their operations, but I have to believe the bad press (and general disruption of some of their operations) had some effect.
Looking into NPAs business you can see what kind of "disruptions" this source might be talking about. For one, the head of NPA operations in NY is/was Rick Del Mastro. He is also the president of the New Era Democrats, an independent political association in NY since 1982. It would seem the NED mission statement contrasts too starkly with NPA's blatant abuse of our community for private interests.
"N.E.D. is a “family” of loyal, genuine friends and associates who embrace all types of participants in its activities, regardless of race, creed, national origin, age, sex or sexual preference. Our organization endeavors to attract persons of integrity who place the interests of their communities and of society above considerations of personal gain."
For whatever reasons NPA has closed shop, we are happy to see them go. We do hope that community pressure was able to expedite the process and allow the DOB to be emboldened by our support.

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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Is NPA Shutting Down And Letting Contest Promotions Take Over?

Photo Shai Dahan, 37th & 3rd avenue

In the past few days I have noticed that in NYC a large number of NPA's illegal street level billboards have been covered with white paper. This comes in the wake of over 15 NPA ads in LA going white just over a week ago. The fact that the illegal billboards in NY and LA did not get new copy immediately after being whited out makes me think that this is NPA's doing and not the work of protestors. Why they are doing this I cannot be sure, but it should be noted that NPA's website is offline while their sister company, Contest Promotions, is still up and running.
18th street and 10th avenue
We all know NPA operates illegally in both cities so it might be expected that the recent removal of Fuel Outdoor ads due to their illegality, and the jailing of a landlord responsible for an illegal supergraphic in LA, has caused the company to shut down completely. If this were true, one would expect all of the companies illegal locations to be whited out, but that's not what we are seeing. In fact I have seen NPA locations around the city covered only sporadically. Sometimes from a single vantage point you can see one NPA ad that has been covered white and one that still retains copy. So what is going on?
I believe that NPA is finally shutting down and letting Contest Promotions takeover its illegal sign business. Through a twisting of words and meaning, the new business model adopted by Contest Promotions is attempting to legalize a portion of the illegal signage NPA was running. To understand what Contest Promotions does with NPA illegal signage in order to make them legal we suggest Ban Billboard Blight's post, "Contest Promotions Signs: Helping Mom & Pop Stores, or Creating Illegal Blight?"
If we are correct and Contest Promotions is taking over, only the signs that are placed on the sides of buildings where a viable business operates with an attendant on duty to man a bogus raffle box, would be legal. And indeed this is what we are seeing in most areas of NY. Locations like 19th street and 9th avenue (above) where there is a pizza shop open still have copy, while places like 37th street and 3rd avenue, which appears to be office space, have gone white.
Another way to tell if the NPA signage will likely fall into Contest Promotions hands under the assumption of legality, is by looking at the placards on all NPA signs. If the sign reads "Win these posters and other prizes inside, La Casa Del Pan, at 3802 Broadway avenue." or some other actual business, this sign will likely be taken by Contest Promotions. On the other hand, if the sign reads "Coming soon to this location, win these posters and other prizes inside." this location will not be viable as there is no business to operate their phony raffle boxes. From what we can tell those locations with a placard that refers to the business inside have retained copy while those without a valid business have gone white over the past few days.
Union avenue & Ainslie street
And if we are right about NPA going under and allowing Contest Promotions to takeover in a bid for legality, all of the wildposting locations around the city should be removed as Contest Promotions cannot justify this illegal activity. And sure enough, after the heavy rains last week I noticed many of the illegal wildposting locations NPA operated at construction sites and other locations around the city were either scrapped clean or postered white. It seemed that overnight many of the blatantly illegal wildposting locations were removed in a coordinated effort. I have seen people try to remove wildpostings from construction fences when they are dry and it is nearly impossible. I think NPA, knowing this, took advantage of the weather and removed illegal wildposting locations around the city knowing that they were going under and Contest Promotions was taking over.
14th street & 9th avenue
One last interesting thing we have noticed is that certain locations which could be operated by Contest Promotions under the guise of legality have still gone white. In the second image on this post you will see two NPA ads, one white, one with copy. They are both adhered to the same parking lot and one would assume they would both retain copy because there is a Contest Promotions raffle box at the parking agent house. It so happens that one of these locations is visible from the High Line park and because of this would be illegal under NYC law regardless of permitting, etc. We hope that this means that Contest Promotions will at least be operating within the confines of NYC law even if they are misconstruing the use of 1st party signage against all reason.
We can't say for sure that these NPA locations are without copy because of this transfer of ownership in an attempt to "go legal," but it seems likely. NPA has never been one to stand down without being pressured to do so. Recent litigation in San Francisco and a pledge from the city of NY to take the illegal public advertising issue more seriously, I believe has made it difficult for NPA operate so blatantly. We only hope that the efforts of hundreds of NYSAT participants, including those arrested by the NYPD for protesting the illegal signage, were in some way responsible for this change in direction and move towards a more commercial free public space.
We will keep you posted if things change, or our theory is proved correct. Until then we hope Contest Promotions looses its battle with San Francisco, and that their bogus scheme to keep operating a portion of NPA's illegal signage is proven to be just that, bogus.

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Friday, March 19, 2010

The Mad Men of Los Angeles

Christine Pelisek has written an incredibly articulate article on the nature of LA's illegal outdoor advertising problem. She spoke to us and included the Weave It! piece we did while out in LA not too long ago. The one thing I would note is that while illegal signage is problematic, it is the use of public space for commercial interest that is really the issue. We should remain aware of this and not give up once illegal signs are removed. Eventually we should take after Sao Paolo and ban it all, period.

The Mad Men of Los Angeles
Living the good life, thanks to the big profits from illegal outdoor advertising

by Christine Pelisek

Supergraphic multimillionaire Barry Rush couldn't have been pleased to hear a few weeks ago that Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich had taken the audacious step of jailing a compatriot in arms, a Hollywood landlord who, for an undisclosed sum, cut a deal with a shadowy firm that draped an illegal supergraphic around a historic Hollywood Boulevard building. [More Here]

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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Eddie Colla Hits LA Hard

Eddie Colla, a participant in the recent Manifest Equality exhibition out in LA, just posted this video to Vimeo. In it you will find shots of the show but more importantly, Eddie taking out a slew of illegal NPA ads in LA. I find this to be a wonderful example of proper use of public space. These messaging boards normally run the gamut of terrible corporate ad campaigns as evidenced by the poster for Repo Men, but their potential to be used to promote public concerns is exemplified in Eddie's recent activities. How incredible would it be if these spaces were typically used by the average citizen to express their concerns on pertinent social issues like gay marriage.

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Sunday, March 14, 2010

The World Has Gone Mad And We Couldn't Be Happier

photo from Unurth

It seems these days residents are taking back their walls in growing numbers. In the past few weeks we have seen NPA's illegal ads in LA targeted by Eddie Colla, and unidentified residents resulting in the removal of over 20 billboards for public communications. And then there was this pinwheel project by an unknown artist in New York not more than a week ago. And now this recent image comes to us from Unurth with no one to lay praise on. Has the world gone mad or has the public taken its responsibility more seriously? It would seem the latter as NPA's illegal signage is being targeted ferociously. Now if only we would see the city respond to these actions in the appropriate manner and begin the removal of all NPA ad frames, or even better, their conversion to public messaging boards!

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Friday, March 12, 2010

15 Illegal NPA Signs Go White In LA






A friend and reader in LA, Stefan Kloo, just sent us images of 15 NPA advertisements that were whited out by an unnamed party recently. The last image, which has a "free humanity" stencil sprayed onto the blank billboard makes me think this wasn't the city of LA cracking down, but a public protest of the illegal signage similar to the NYSAT project. If anyone has any info on this matter, please tell us what you know.

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City's slow enforcement of billboard ban

The article below was just sent to me after a quick Facebook communication with Eddie Colla. Eddie's reasoning behind using the streets for his work is incredible and should be checked out here. The article, penned in 2007, juxtaposes San Francisco's history of political posters with what was at that time a rampant increase in illegal postering by our good friends at NPA. From what I understand, SF has been gaining more and more control of their illegal advertising issues through the hard work and dedication of a few people at the Department of Public Works, and other non-profits like San Francisco Beautiful. Proposition D, the privately crafted, pro-billboard measure was decisively defeated at the polls in November of 2009, and shows SF's continued interest in keeping its streets advertising free.

Commenting on the difference between corporate use of public space versus artistic use in the form of political and socially minded postering, Workman of SF beautiful says, “I prefer that activist posters go up on a designated community board,” and added, “but there’s no way that one political artist can create as much visual noise as the corporate street teams who seem to transform a neighborhood over night.”

To me this is always something we must refer back to when deciding who has access to public space. We want to see advertising leave the public environment, but this does not mean we want to limit the public's use of that space. This may seem hypocritical but it is not. Individual use of our public environment is a way for residents to communicate with one another. If those communications are put forth by individuals, they do not have the ability to overwhelm our public thoughts in the way that corporate advertising intends to.

VIA El Tecolote
written by obynn Takayama, Nov 15, 2007

In the 1970s and ‘80s, political posters filled the Mission District’s urban landscape. Juan Fuentes started making posters because he said it democratized art. “The power of art is its ability to distribute information. Poster making is more immediate than oil painting, which could take months to finish. So the message could reach more people, faster, with posters.” [More Here]

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Who Dunnit?


The first photo is taken by Luna Park of a Weave It! piece I installed a while back. She contacted me after seeing this recent installation of pinwheels, wondering if it was my work. It is not and I would love to know who is responsible for this wonderful piece.

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Friday, March 5, 2010

Eddie Colla-NPA Advertising Takeover

VIA Arrested Motion

Looks like one of the artists in the recently opened Manifest Equality exhibition decided NPA's illegal advertising needed better content. Arrested Motion was there to catch all of the action.

"As an added bonus, AM got the opportunity to accompany Manifest Hope/Equality artist Eddie Colla as he blanketed Hollywood with his Anti-Prop 8 propaganda. Check out the full pictorial recap of the show and the streets after the jump."

Oddly, I was not aware of Eddie Colla's work. They explain it like this...
"There is a visual conversation that takes place on the streets of urban environments. This conversation is dominated primarily by advertising and utilitarian signage and assumes passive participation. Whether invited or not I am going to participate in this conversation. Public spaces were never intended to be coated from top to bottom with photos of consumer products. These spaces should, in some manner, reflect the culture that thrives in that space.

Some people view what I do as vandalism. I assume that their objection is that I alter the landscape without permission. Advertising perpetually alters our environment without the permission of it’s inhabitants. The only difference is that advertisers pay for the privilege to do so and I don’t. So if you’re going to call me anything, it is more accurate to call me a thief."

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Saturday, February 27, 2010

Unwelcome Mats And Other CityEvention Campaigns

Remember these stupid door mats for Direct TV? They appeared about a year ago for a guerrilla marketing campaign and we never found out the responsible party. Just yesterday a reader sent us a few links about another "street mat" campaign that appeared recently on the upper west side of Manhattan.

In fact one of the links was to a New York Times article about the illegal advertisements. In the article Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said

"It was “an unauthorized ad,” he said, adding that another had been placed outside an entrance to the station at 79th Street and Broadway. Transit officials “reached out to the Beacon Theater” with a request to remove them, he said, although he said it was not clear whether “we took them out ourselves, or they did.”

So who was responsible for the safety liabilities? Well the reader who contacted us had found that on the CityEventions twitter page they remark "Our Banana Shpeel decals get a NY Times mention." This is funny cause they are coy about the whole thing on the CityEventions Facebook page where they seem not to know the culprit "The Upper West Side now OFFICIALLY welcomes Banana Shpeel.. awesome decal. I wonder who put it there...?"

These tactics seemed reminiscent of another outdoor advertising company we take issue with in New York, City Outdoor, which is actually NPA City Outdoor. Sure enough on the CityEventions Facebook page they draw a connection when they talk about the "Love it or Hate it Campaign."

"This campaign was run for City USA this past summer. It showcases how City Eventions is able to team with City Outdoor and other City USA constituents, to pull off a killer campaign that integrates traditional and non-traditional advertising"


We then went to the CityEventions website and even more insanity popped up. Apparently they are responsible for a recent dye-cut cutout campaign for Do Denim. These life sized busts were simply strewn around the city, attached to construction awnings for passersby to run into. As we are faced with yet another guerrilla marketing campaign that is little more than abusive street art, the question of why we allow this type of corporate behavior and yet criminalize street art and graffiti resounds in my head. This question is particularly perplexing when you think that policing this corporate graffiti should take nothing more than a phone call to the offending company.

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Thursday, February 25, 2010

Major Campaign Donors, Friends of City Council Members Have Connections to Rogue Sign Company Named by City Attorney in Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit

As per usual, Ban Billboard Blight gets right to the point when revealing outdoor advertising's soft underbelly. Here they expose NPA, a company we have been at odds with in NY, for the ad pushers they are, citing over $85,000 in campaign contributions to the city of LA. As Ban Billboard Blight has their hands full in LA, we can only hope that their progress on the west coast stirs action on ours.

VIA Ban Billboard Blight

Peter Zackery, president of National Promotions and Advertising (NPA), a company specializing in poster-style advertising on construction fences and billboards on outside walls of liquor stores, donut shops and other small businesses, is one of the defendants in the major lawsuit filed this week against World Wide Rush, a company accused of putting up numerous illegal supergraphic signs. Another NPA executive, Gary Shafner, was not named in the suit, but is prominently mentioned in court filings in an unrelated case as having been involved in the initial establishment of World Wide Rush in the L.A. market three years ago. [More Here]

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Saturday, February 20, 2010

NPA contracts-Evidence of Extralegal Behavior

Over the years I have gained access to a few NPA City Outdoor contracts. I haven't posted them mainly because I thought it might just piss off NPA and not be of much interest to others. Recently I changed my mind due to the particularly fast removal of a project I just took part in, as well as a book I am reading which has strengthened my resolve. I will post on this book next week as I would like to finish it before giving my small review.

With the NYSAT Micro Site we have provided every scrap of evidence needed for the NYC Sign Enforcement Unit to go after NPA tooth and nail. The fact that the city has failed to challenge the company as an entity and still goes after individual signs is frustrating to say the least. It is incredibly hard to understand why the city wouldn't at least go after a minimum $10,000.00 fine at each of their 500 locations, resulting in 5 million in city revenue. Either way, I know the department is incredibly under staffed and is doing a difficult job, I just don't see why it isn't done smarter.

The first 4 contracts are between NPA City Outdoor and private landlords for the operation of illegal Wildposting on NYC construction sheds. These ads are across the board illegal because NYC does not allow this type of signage period. This fact is clearly state on the DOB website, yet here we are looking at contractual agreements for this type of signage as recently as 2009. Part of the reason this type of outdoor advertising is illegal is that it inevitably ends up in shambles blighting our city more than the advertising itself.

The first thing I would like to point out is the termination agreement which states, "Lessor or Lessee can terminate this agreement at any time after 30 days written notice. However Lessor cannot terminate this agreement for the purpose of replacing NPA's product with that of another advertising company." Really?

The second thing I will point out is the content restriction clause which states, "Lessee shall not permit any advertisement which contains lewd, lascivious, or pornographic content." I could care less about what some consider "lewd" material but I find it funny I have been staring at a bare breast for the past few weeks while the Diesel campaign has been up and running.



And finally this last contract is between Go Poster (Purchased by NPA) and East Village Farms at 98 Avenue A. This location is where 2 people were arrested during the first NYSAT project and has recently been removed by a landlord facing 250,000.00 in fines due to the illegal advertising. The landlord at this location speaks very little english and is having a hard time dealing with this violation. Meanwhile NPA, who also received $250,000.00 in fines has put their lawyer Robert Hochman on the case and will probably walk away from this little indiscretion unscathed. Upset yet? Compounding this situation is the fact that the landlord at 98 avenue A did not even sign this contract, and had no knowledge of the illegality of the signage. In fact it was a night employee who put their John Hancock on this "contract." If you were erecting a sign on my property would you ask a tenant to sign the contract? All of this is made more absurd by the fact that Contest Promotions Inc was in the process of applying for an accessory business sign permit at this location without the landlord or deli owners knowledge just prior to them removing it. Long story short, NPA and CPI are the same company. Operating illegal advertising signage is punishable with a fine of up to $25,000. If each location that now holds illegal NPA advertising had an accessory bussines sign permit for those structures, they could claim that they were merely "improperly" using these signs. The fine associated with improper use of a business sign is on par with a parking ticket.


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Sunday, February 14, 2010

Weave It! NPA City Outdoor/PublicAdCampaign Collaboration-Los Angeles

The most recent Weave It! piece was put up while I was on a trip in Los Angeles and was installed at the corner of Sunset and Parkman street. I installed it around midnight on Friday, February 12th, and sadly it seems this is right around the time NPA puts up their illegal posters. When I came back on Saturday morning the piece had already been removed. Ill be heading back to Los Angeles a bit in the next few months and will make sure I don't go out on Fridays this time around.



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Monday, February 8, 2010

Phonebooth Install for Dutch News



A Dutch news team followed me around last week while I installed this quick piece and another Weave It! NPA/PublicAdCampaign collaboration. I'll launch the video footage when they do and hopefully have a chance to install something out here in LA before I head back east.

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Friday, February 5, 2010

Weave It! NPA City Outdoor/PublicAdCampaign Collaboration


The most recent Weave It! piece at Crosby and Grand has been removed. I installed it around 5pm on Wednesday in front of a Dutch news channel. The ad that was there before was for Alexander Wang, a young fashion designer whose look book I worked on a few years back when he was up and coming. I left the one image because I had gotten rid of the reference to advertising and liked the way she was swooning over the pattern.

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

It's Official, The New York Street Advertising Takeover Microsite Is Up

Monday morning at approximately 11:00am the final 3 arrested NYSAT participants had their cases dismissed because the NPA employees who called the police on them failed to sign the deposition in order move forward with the case. This is the same thing that happened with all 9 of the arrests associated with the two NYSAT projects and is an indication that NPA is not interested in a legal battle because they know what they are doing is illegal and would rather sweep controversy under the rug. Now that our participants are safe, our lawyers have told us we can finally launch the official NYSAT website.


On this website you will find an immense amount of information regarding the projects including, project documentation, maps, video, press, information on NPA, information on how to identify and report illegal signage, and a description of how you too can create a public intervention of your own.

We would like to thank everyone involved in this project whose participation made it possible to create such a large scale public intervention that not only benefited the participants but the city at large. We have been continually impressed with the level of commitment NYC residents have to their city and their shared public spaces. It is truly an indication of how much people care about the city they live in and the spaces which knit all those private residences, and ourselves together.

Please note that gathering all the information for this site has been a challenge and we admit there might be some things we overlooked in the process. If you were a participant and you have not been credited, would like to remain anonymous, have imagery you would like included or generally have changes, please contact us and we will alter the site immediately. We cannot thank everyone enough for their dedication to this cause and New York City in general.

Sincerely PublicAdCampaign

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Putting Together The NYSAT Website Makes Me Mad

I put these two pieces up last night in an effort to continue working on the street as much as possible in 2010. As I mentioned two posts ago, I have been wanting to break the frame and begin collapsing the space between the advertisement and the outdoor environment. I hope to eventually be able to visually get rid of the advertisement as well as the frame that retains it. This piece begins to do that but practice on the street will make a big difference. Each of these takes about 15 minutes to install and I am not used to working at one spot for that long. I was hoping to continue the weave off the frame on the far side but not only was there a puddle to wade through but a parked NYC tow truck driver, staring me down with his headlights, made me very nervous. Ill do more of these and see if I can get them to work.

Washington between 13th and 14th street south side 01-20-10

27th street and 8th avenue SEC 01-20-10

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Thursday, January 14, 2010

NPA Has No Respect For Chico, Pete, Or You For That Matter

I was looking through some old images of NPA's illegal street level billboards in NYC and realized I hadn't noticed their complete lack of respect for New York's public mural works. Like the Conor Harrington mural that they so callously covered and Dick Chicken and I then liberated, NPA seems to seek out Chico and Pete's work in order to cover it. These artists are not only NYC legends, but true community members and invested urban citizens, painting messages of hope and inclusion on the streets for all of us to enjoy.

Houston Street Between A+B North
6th Street & Avenue C SWC
Norfolk & Delancey NEC

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Monday, December 21, 2009

98 Avenue A Finally Removed After 8 Months

Approximately April 25th

December 21st 2009

After 2 arrests on April 25th during the first NYSAT project, having the DOB officially deem this location illegal, watching as a half a million dollars in fines were issued by the ECB to both NPA and the landlord, this location has finally been removed 8 months later. Whether or not those violations will stick is a question we anxiously await as we follow NPA's conversion to Contest Promotions Inc. in NYC. Now lets see if we can get Keith Schwietzer to get an artist to refresh those rolldowns and give the East Village something it deserves.

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    WORTH READING

    Eduardo Moises Penalver & Sonia Kaytal
    Property Outlaws: How Squatters, Pirates, and Protesters Improve the Law of Ownership

    Barbara Ehrenreich
    Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy

    Lewis Hyde
    The Gift, Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World

    Geoffrey Miller
    Spent: Sex, Evolution, & Consumer Behavior

    Sharon Zukin
    The Cultures of Cities

    Miriam Greenberg
    Branding New York

    Naomi Klein
    No Logo

    Kalle Lasn
    Culture Jam

    Stuart Ewen
    Captains of Consciousness

    Stuart Ewen
    All Consuming Images

    Stuart & Elizabeth Ewen
    Channels of Desire

    Jeff Ferrell
    Crimes of Style

    Jeff Ferrell
    Tearing Down the Streets

    John Berger
    Ways of Seeing

    Joe Austin
    Taking the Train

    Rosalyn Deutsche
    Evictions art + spatial politics

    Jane Jacobs
    Death+Life of American Cities