The Billboard Liberation Front

I found this small section interesting, on the Billboard Liberation Front manifesto, it reminded me of how advertising can invade our private or personal spaces, ads are used in places we wouldn't necessary expect to see advertising - so they are forced upon us. I think the idea of advertising in personal spaces is something which I want to explore further.

Culture jammers use various different media to subvert and expose advertisements, however at the forefront of altering billboard advertisements is the Billboard Liberation Front. (BLF) The group was formed in San Francisco in the late 1970's and was a reaction against media intruding public spaces. 'Advertising suffuses all corners of our waking lives; it so permeates our consciousness that even our dreams are often indistinguishable from a rapid succession of TV commercials.'

(www.billboardliberation.com/ArtAndScience-BLF.pdf)

I found the article 'Altered States' relevant it focuses on the BLF and outdoor advertising. (Warren Berger, Advertising Age's Creativity. Jun 2000, Vol. 8 Issue 5, p51) An interesting point the article makes is that advertisiers can be highly influenced by the appearance of cultured jammed advertisements.  

'Culture jammers like Napier "have had a big influence on the look and tone of advertising in recent years," says Annie Finnegan, a creative director at Arnold Communications who has lectured on guerrilla advertising at Creative Circus. As Finnegan and other observers point out, a growingnumber of ads have become highly adept at co-opting and imitating culture jammed ads -- such that it has become increasingly difficult to tell whether the graffiti on billboards is authentic or whether it has been inserted there by advertisers. Examples have included the Captain Morgan rum ads, in which the advertiser has crossed out headlines and scribbled all over the pretty pictures, as well as a recent Amstel Light campaign featuring posters that seemed to have been written by a crazed anarchist urging the public to avoid Amstel "at all costs," and warning of "impending doom."