Ad Men

I miss the old days when you could wheatpaste a little leftist or gay propaganda on a construction wall, and have your message remain for a while, depending on the weather. When I guerilla-sticked a bevy of bicycle racks around San Francisco to promote Cyclizen, most of them just disappeared pretty quickly. A few times, though, I've noticed that they just stuck. I noticed a stranger eyeing me as I racked my bike, which also has a Cyclizen sticker on the frame, along a rack with a faded Cyclizen sticker.

Via my bud JockoHomo, a new brand of guerrilla wheatpasting's going on in old New York. Illegal corporate ads are being replaced by public art by The Wooster Collective and The Public Ad Campaign. Pretty neat. Ban Billboard Blight also keeps track of LA ad ugliness.

The folks doing this art also elminiate annoying billboards. Even better! Except that kind of behavior led to the disappearance of my bike rack Cyclizen stickers. Oh, well...

Speaking of annoying ads, is anyone a bit annoyed by the Chase commercials that use a cover of the John Lennon song "Instant Karma"?

I mean, whatever the lyric "Well, we all shine on" has to do with added late fees, I dunno. The fact that perhaps Michael Jackson or Yoko Ono sold the rights to the song is icky enough, But it's strangely ironic that a commercial about a bank uses a song with the lyrics (not in the commercial) "Instant Karma's gonna get you. Gonna knock you upside the head."

So, the next time I bounce a check, will I "shine on?"