Tag Archives: ad subversion

Graffiti street art flyposters and people in the Braithwaite tunnel at Wheler St in Shoreditch London featuring artists Helch and Knapple

Some People Are On The Pitch…

Why does a street art tour guide snap adverts?  The answer is simply for love of the graphic response adverts provoke.  The way people subvert, augment and modify adverts is pretty much an artform in itself.  The printed advert becomes a host for forced artistic collaboration and capturing the “before and after” timeline yields fascinating mini histories of public intervention.

illegal flyposter advert in Shoreditch

don’t buy it, don’t buy it….

A week ago I photographed an illegal flyposter advertising a new album release, in itself it was a quite compelling photograph. When I returned from a week in Wales the advert was still there, to my surprise, though now it hosted several graffiti enhancements. The black tag with the jagged arrow underlining reads ARTIK LTB who is an hugely impressive creator of large scale rollerbrush graffiti all over London.  There is also a vertical tag which could be “Sey”; the large “throw” over the three characters in the advert appears to read PY and there is an arcing “Shmokey” tag in a white marker with quote marks and triple dotted underlining.

illegal flyposter advert subverted by a graffiti writer in Shoreditch

Artik, Shmokey and others vs advertising

The next morning the Shoreditch Street Art Tour passed through this tunnel and that advert had been replaced with a fresh crop of flyposters which I dutifully snapped at high speed as we passed by.    Although I am I swear completely and utterly immune to adverts, there is an advert for Ed Sheeran in that collection which is a curious coincidence as last Summer on a Shoreditch Street Art Tour we spotted Ed Sheeran serving burgers out of a silver airstream style street food truck just yards from that very spot.

illegal flyposter advert in Shoreditch June 2021

June 2021 Flyposters

Ed Sheeran serving fast food from a silver airstream truck in Shoreditch London spotted on Shoreditch Street Art Tour

Ed Sheeran padding his CV, 2020

To my delight, just 24 hours later on Sunday that collection of adverts had augmented with a gorgeous fat chrome and black dub by Noyse.

illegal flyposter advert subverted by a graffiti writer in Shoreditch

Noyze 1 Flyposters 0

So, why do people make marks on adverts?  In the case of street artists, being anti advertising has been a core sentiment since the movement’s origins, for many artists it justified illegal street art created in response to desecration of the visual public landscape by overwhelming advertising.

illegal flyposter advert subverted by street artist Decapcitator in Shoreditch

Decapacitator vs Uniqlo, 2008

Graffiti writers will point to the fact that the adverts are in locations designed to attract eyeballs, they also provide a nice clean surface for easy marking. In the case of the locations photographed here they also happen to be right next to key graffiti spots and many graffiti writers just happen to be in the area with the right equipment

graffiti by sony over spraypainted advert for Breitling in Shoreditch

spraypainted watch advert subverted by Sony (ironic? lol)

Just a brief note on the title of this essay which may seem a little obscure particularly if you are not British or a football fan.  There is an iconic fragment of BBC commentary from 1966 which registers as one of the nation’s most patriotic collective memories, see the short clip below; an advert is a “pitch”; people intervening on an advert are “on the pitch” and the football theme is relevant as the Euros are currently underway 1 year late.

Here is a small selection of some favourite earlier examples of advert subversion:

illegal flyposter advert subverted by street artist Anna Laurini in Shoreditch

Anna Laurini “Let’s Advertise”, 2016

illegal flyposter advert in Shoreditch in 2020

very arty advert

illegal flyposter advert subverted by street artist Nathan Bowen in Shoreditch

Bowenised

illegal flyposter advert for Lady Gaga subverted by street artist DFace in Shoreditch

D*Face vs Lady Gaga 2016

Does the advertising work?  There is still no way I could be persuaded to purchase an Ed Sheeran album 🙂

LINKS:

Artik instagram

Sony instagram

Nathan Bowen instagram

Anna Laurini instagram

D*Face instagram

all photos: Dave Stuart


No Ad Day, Street art, Advertising, ad busting, ad hijacking, ad subversion, billboard

Advertising Shits In Your Head and No Ad Day

Two interesting things are coming up which relate to issues often raised on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour.

The first is that this Sunday we celebrate No Ad Day.  Street artists have often cited an anti advertising stance to justify their actions, the essence of the message being “who gave advertisers permission  to hijack public space to bombard us with their advertising messages, we are reclaiming our visual landscape”.  No Ad Day takes the view that advertising is pernicious, not necessarily truthful, overwhelming and a mechanism for artificially stimulating demand in the absence of a natural imperative to acquire based on need.  So this Sunday, in cities around the world including New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid and undoubtedly many more, there is possibly going to be some subtle action to reduce the quantity of advertising.

No Ad Day, Street art, Advertising, ad busting, ad hijacking, ad subversion, billboard, bus stop, bus

via No Ad day website, photographer unknown

Look out for blank advert spaces, hijacked advert spaces, subverted adverts and perhaps more.   If an ad looks a bit odd, check it out it might just have been hit by someone engaging in a No Ad Day activity.

 

On the street art tour we often delight in discovering subverted adverts and hijacked advertising spaces, we will certainly be keeping our eyes peeled in London this weekend.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Advertising, ad busting, ad hijacking, ad subversion, billboard, fly posters, H.O

H.O subverts a collection of illegal fly posters, Nov 2016, photo Dave Stuart

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Advertising, ad busting, ad hijacking, ad subversion, billboard, bus stop, bus

Hogre puts art where advertising used to be, June 2016, photo Dave Stuart

 

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Advertising, ad busting, ad hijacking, ad subversion, billboard, flyposter

Lady Gaga D’Faced, photo Dave Stuart

The results of stripping adverts from the urban landscape can be quite impressive, in 2010 the vast quantity of illegal billboards all over Athens, from the Centre to the Port of Piraeus in one direction and out to the airport in the other suddenly whited out.  Whether this was driven by economics or principal, or even possibly but more remotely actually just a clamp down on illegal advertising, it made a huge difference to Athen’s appearance.

Athens, Advertising, ad busting, ad hijacking, ad subversion, billboard, buff

Athens, 2010, photo Dave Stuart

 

The second thing I want to let you know about is a rather interesting publication with the awesome title “Advertising Shits In Your Head”.  This is a book to be published by Dog Section Press.

London, Shoreditch, Advertising, ad busting, ad hijacking, ad subversion, billboard, bus stop, bus, Advertising Shits in your Head

Advertising Shits In Your Head, photo via Dog Section press

Advertising Shits In Your Head combines theory and practice in one short book about the modern subvertising movement.  It will certainly be an interesting read for the curious.  At present a crowd funding campaign is very close to raising the target needed to proceed to publication, if you or someone you know might be interested in this book, do look a bit closer.  Funding deadline date is 28th November, the day after No Ad Day, funding is 85% towards target.

Advertising, ad busting, ad hijacking, ad subversion, billboard, bus stop, bus, Advertising Shits in your Head

Advertising Shits In Your Head, photo via Dog Section press

You can in effect pre order the book by contributing just £5 to the funding though I’m looking forward to rocking a Dog Section Press Teeshirt on some tours next Summer.

 

One evening early last month when the campaign was first launched I luckily caught this particularly relevant subverted advertising lightbox in Islington.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Advertising, ad busting, ad hijacking, ad subversion, billboard, bus stop, bus

by @ProtestStencil, photo by Dave Stuart

On the web page for the funding are many other recent updates of subvertising actions,

98428-1-2d7567a23d1854b6f04a67479268c097

photo via Dog Section Pres, photographer unknown

My friends at VNA magazine, my favourite zine got this ace interview from Dog Section Press Editor Vyvian Raoul about the ideas and manifestations of this new wave of artivism.   So, check out the crowdfunding page now and help push the appeal over the line (update – now 93% funded).

Feature Photo via No Ad Day

Photo sources cited, if any photographer would like a credit for their photograph please drop an email