After seeing this show and tell by Graffiti Research Laboratory who pointed out that New Yorkers see an average of 5,000 advertisements daily, we got to thinkin' on a short editorial (then you can watch TV, click below)
Just as the “broken window” theory purports that graffiti has a subliminal effect on a city’s populace and can drag it down to a resigned passivity in its own decay, the perpetual visual bombardment of a populace with garishly omnipotent commercials would by necessity have an effect at least on par with what is traditionally called graffiti — at least in severity, if not in kind, tho advertising’s negative effect is very likely greater given its utilization of the moving image to captivate passersby.
In any case, herewith, two citizen activists from Graffiti Research Laboratory, who like many other public artists, from aerosol to laser, are advancing a crucial argument: why should the corrosive omnipotence of reductive product advertising hold a unique privilege over public space, one that supercedes the very rights of the public who claim it? Michael Vazquez
Click the generic youtube screen below for a public service video on the urban menace of advertising graffiti. Links below.
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