~Ad-Removal-Services
Advert Removal Services
United Kingdom
Advert Removal Services
…is an open organisation dedicated to the fight against visual pollution, in the form of billboards, bus and bus shelter adverts, shop signage and any other nook and cranny occupied in public spaces largely by outdoor advertisers.
Outdoor advertising isn't in the public interest, it doesn't serve to make our streets more navigable / safe / unique or interesting. Advertising serves to perpetuate a culture of greed by implanting false desires and aspirations. The more we accede to these desires and aspirations the more our freedom is eroded and we become slaves to fashion, to lifestyles, to cosmetics, and so on, to the point where our very ideas, daydreams, beliefs and thoughts are directly formed by the corporate messages we allow in.
Not only do these corporate messages, by largely encouraging excessive consumption, impact on our wellbeing, and day to day thoughts. They are also the primary drivers of a reckless and insatiable capitalist system which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer in every conceivable way.
Outdoor advertising is the most odious form of advertising because we have no choice but to see it. It litters our streets and worms its way into our consciousness. It has quietly and rampantly invaded our neighbourhoods to the point where corporate slogans and messages are now the very fabric of our landscape.
While there is work to be done, and being done, to argue the case against visual pollution. Ours is a more direct assault on the adverts and advertisers themselves.
Our aims:
1. To shut down / seize / impound / bury / block out as much outdoor advertising as possible.
2. By understanding the law and its limits on our endeavours, and by sharing this understanding with members and followers, we can build a sustainable and lawful campaign against visual pollution.
3. While the content of outdoor advertising varies in repugnance (a billboard could be advertising McDonalds one week and Macmillan Cancer Support the next) all outdoor advertising is fair game - it is all forced upon us, and action upon it is therefore down to each activists discretion.
4. By targeting and intervening in as much and as many forms of visual pollution as possible, not only do we hope to bring awareness to docile and submissive public, we also aim to make it less and less appealing for companies to utilise outdoor advertising. If we can create a culture of fast and effective Advert Removal our hope is that in order to avoid embarrassment and lost revenue, businesses will opt out, and choose to advertise elsewhere.
5. By targeting outdoor advertising we not only nullify the advertising companies message, we also serve to agitate, hold to account and upend the companies that facilitate this pollution - Clear Channel, Primesight, JC Decaux, CBS etc
6. We want to reinvigorate a sense of civic pride. Just because we all live in cities does not mean our scenery needs to be constructed by the spectacle of advertisement. There is beauty to be found behind these boards, be it a brick wall, a bank of weeds or an unrestricted view of a park or a terrace.
National advertising campaigns, as well as chain store signage serve to homogenise our cities, towns and villages. More and more we are living in areas, not defined by character, industry, cultural achievements, community spirit or history, but simply by economic worth. As the environmentalist, George Monbiot recently wrote in an article for the Guardian:
"We have used our unprecedented freedoms – secured at such cost by our forebears – not to agitate for justice, for redistribution, for the defence of our common interests, but to pursue the dopamine hits triggered by the purchase of products we do not need."
Those of us involved in this project feel our lives are more than just instruments for economic growth, and that collectively we must reorganise our priorities and desires, away from the commodified lifestyle of excessive consumption and greedy materialism, towards a more sustainable, less wasteful culture motivated by equality and by the sharing of skills, knowledge and resources.
If you feel the same way we do, join in with our campaign in whichever way you can. If you have some ideas for your own advert interventions then set to work and send us the results so we can show the world. If you need some help, we have developed a toolkit which will help you get started. If nothing else, please share this site with any likeminded friends and colleagues. We need all the support we can get.
We are sailing very close to the wind with this idea, in that we are making every effort to stay on the right side of the law. We will always recommend you do the same.
Sta.sh
