Street talking

You don’t see a lot of great outdoor advertising in New York which surprises me.

I see a lot of websites with campaigns comped up to look like they ran in New York but there's a difference between the photoshop city and the real deal. Tramping around the streets I have to scratch my head to find anything that would even slow me in my tracks let alone stop me. It’s a shame because there’s a savvy wise-ass population who would engage in a positive way to wit and visual artistry. Obviously not. I used to commute by bus into Port Authority terminal and there on the edges and outlying corners off Time Square there are billboards on streets. They are, however, universally terrible examples of the medium’s potential. I grew up in the UK, which also has its fair share of eye polluting shit stuck up on the sides of roads and buildings. But there is also a regular occurrence of clever, funny, striking and thought-provoking work. Looking through ad sites I see the same is true of New Zealand and India. The U.S., which brought us the classic Burma Shave posters, has really bland offerings. I heard a client once dismiss outstanding outdoor concepts with the comment ` Oh we don’t see this medium ever in our fiscal.’ Put aside the pretentious use of language what he was saying was we don’t want to say bold things to people who are influencers. Put the same artwork online and now it’s a banner and that’s sexy and mod. Posters are like homeless people; Clients want to get past them without handing out any money.