A phenomenon that has been dubbed “Ad Creep” continues apace with our public structures as more and more are being rented out for branding and messaging. In India, for instance, a support column of a highway overpass has just been turned into a bone to hawk some pharma product called Sandoz, which turns your skeleton into concrete or something. [SButtonZ button="digg"]
It reminds us a bit of KFC’s attempt to brand pothole repair in Louisville and a handful of other US cities by filling them and then spraypainting their logo on repaired roads. (Get it–”filled”? Just like you, after a yummy fried chikken dinner!)
Animal and Copy Ranter have been documenting the phenomenon come up with some interesting examples. In Chicago, for instance, there’s an ad for Lay’s chips that creates the effect of potatoes growing out of the roof of a pedestrian passage in an “L” station. It seems to have a somewhat startling effect for transit passengers (pic below). 
Somewhere over in Euroland, they have equipped swings at public playgrounds with ropes thick enough to tether a battleship and then placed an public service ad on the seat announcing that 20 percent of kids are fat (which, frankly, sounds low to us).
In Israel, there’s another public service campaign that makes inventive use of sewer grates to bring attention to the hunger–empty plates stacked in the gratings as if it were a dish rack. It’s an inventive idea, and raising awareness of hunger is nice… but it strikes us as not unlikely that some poor old people or rambunctious kid might not see these small breakable objects on the ground in the middle of a busy pedestrian thoroughfare. Likewise, in Mumbai a sewer grate has been turned into an abacus to promote the cause of numeracy (pics below).
A German airline is selling space on the wings of it’s planes, leading to a creepy ad that makes it look like some guy is clinging to the outside of the aircraft, bringing to mind a certain Twilight Zone episode starring a certain young William Shatner.
Meanwhile, in New York City, your taxi seat belt has been brought to you by the good people at Milky Way. Please remember us for all your junk food needs if you happen to appreciate having this device available to save your life. (Photo below)
Green Sheet argues that inventive ads like the femur-as-highway-support-columns might be a good way to pay for infrastructure investment. By contrast, most advertising industry commentators seem to be appalled by the intrusiveness of the campaigns.
Honestly, though, the intrusiveness seems to be more of a concern in theory than in practice. These campaigns are amusing mostly because they’re so hamhanded and ridiculous (the extra-think ropes on the swings standing as example A). As long as the attempts to brand our public structures look anything like these, we’re not overly concerned.
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A few more samples after the jump
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Tags: NEWFANGLED THINGS
I think it’s rather amusing. some of these horrid concrete structures need some decoration sell add space I say. Leave it to Dubai to take it one step further, Officials are negotiating with international and local companies over naming rights for 23 stations on the two new lines that are due to open this year. This corporate branding would be the first of its kind in the world. Hey if that could be an extra source of revenue why not.
They’re better than a Billy Mayes commercial screaming at you to buy a product. I’d rather see creativity in advertising than lame ads.
Sandoz is a large Swiss pharma company. They sell calcium supplements, hence the bone.
Thanks, Fazal.
If only there were some device or application that would allow us to check these things quickly…
Jebediah
That Mumbai grate is a counting frame that illustrates [a] a numeric series and [b] a looped rainbow. But it isn’t an abacus due to the unequal number of beads on the rods. I remember getting a small soroban (1+4) as a Christmas present when I was a kid. Just the thing for a math nut.
Wiki :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus
Interactive :
http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/numbers/machine/abacus.htm
“public service ad on the seat announcing that 20 percent of kids are fat (which, frankly, sounds low to us)”
Probably because it’s in Europe. In the US, it would no doubt be higher. Sadly.
My girlfriend works in advertising and marketing and they typically refer to this as “guerrilla advertising” if I’m not mistaken.
I think that it is so playful and different that it is what makes it effective. Public service announcements are honestly quite boring if they are not somehow done in a clever way. If you interact with something (like the swings) you will remember it even better and talk about it with your friends, neighbors, and even strangers as you all discuss that wacky ad you saw somewhere today.
Here in El Paso, Tx they already dress up concrete structures that are part of the infrastructure with different colors and designs that reflect our southwestern heritage but other places are still a blank canvas…lets start doing in moderation and keep it weird so it is noticed and make some money while we’re at it!!
Every square inch of every visible surface in India is used for advertising. Take a look at a few photos on my web site. Take a look at these for example: http://www.coralfringe.com/gallery/album20/DCP_3366 and http://www.coralfringe.com/gallery/album18/DCP_3260
The effect of all this advertising is mind-numbing and in my opinion has contributed to the decrease in quality of life in the big cities.
I am a fan of the cleverness of these ads. But I think I might change quickly my mind if EVERY company tried to be as clever.
Here’s one in a similar vein:
http://spacing.ca/wire/2009/08/18/ad-creep-that-looks-cool-but-isnt-that-cool/
(Bus shelter in Toronto pretending to be a cooler filled with Coors Light.)
Sandoz is also the company that invented LSD, seems like a trippy enough advertisement to get my approval…
[...] – More food for thought in the private-influence-in-public-space conversation, focusing on advertising [Infrastructurist] [...]
[...] The more spaces that advertisers are allowed to put their messages, the more creatively they continue to spread out: Here are a few over the top examples of “ad creep”. [...]