Rolling For Dollars
Perhaps I'll share with you later the story of how today I unwittingly tracked dogshit throughout the very elegant, expensive, and art-filled house of a museum patron while doing a location shoot of some of his glass pieces, but right now I need to say something about this abomination.
I don't know where to begin. We've all seen "mobile advertising", those trucks that just drive around for no reason but to circulate a fucking billboard in a purely ingenious American combination of waste and effrontery. But my friends at MAP have really pushed the envelope. With their Tri-action™ signs--wherein the front, side and rear panels of the truck are comprised of triangular slats that rotate distractingly every few seconds to reveal a different advert--they've added 'significant traffic hazard' to the mix.
The thing is, to most people, this probably seems like a stand-up, clever enterprise. Really shows some get up and go. I mean, people spend more and more time in their cars, right? Why not take advantage of that and take the message to the people. An honest dollar, right? And really, in a landscape that is as generally degraded and toxic as ours, what's one more vessel in the shitstream?
RADIO UPDATE: I'll be on the air again this Saturday, from 6-8pm EST, playing music for the demographically insignificant, if you care to listen or collaborate.
posted by C. JoDI at 5:41 PM
4 Comments:
The only thing I can think to do when people use effective but soul-numbingly horrible means to get name-recognition attention is to vow to never ever patronize their businesses. The more effective job they make burning their name into my mind, the longer the moratorium lasts.
When I get the opportunity, I mention to them I'm boycotting them. But I don't go far out of my way to do that. I figure if they don't care enough to learn on their own why I don't buy from them, then I'm demographically insignificant. And the beat goes on.
Cheers,
'mouse
Let's examine the human toll. We, the unwitting recipients of this ad-injection, are less able to avoid eye contact than with a billboard - indeed, the f-er may be in front of us in heavy traffic. There is the ad-truck driver, unlikely to be the owner - s/he gets the honor of a few flipped birds and scowls, and can't pick her/his nose nearly as much as they otherwise could without being, eh, fingered. Our auto-bound children get to revel in the joys of yet more intrusion [will Chuck-E-Cheese rent some space on a truck that circles the local elementary school during recess?]; the business owner probably will benefit, actually in their own mind, from increased revenue and market exposure.
Just another part of our lives into which Madison Ave. has inserted inself. Next up: clean-plate-club and cat-nappers cum captive audiences. Progress, HO!
Wow. That is really, really grotesque. It actually looks like something that would be driving around the hypertactically lethal Detroit of the first Robocop movie. Just looking at it makes me anxious.
I share your loathing of the "garden-variety" mobile billboards, which tooled around NYC long after they were outlawed (and may still, although it's been a while since I've seen them). Waste and effrontery, indeed; you nailed it, my dear. I will admit, though, to being amused the day I saw a Duane Reade (massive annoying drugstore chain) ad, followed not nearly five minutes later by an ad bought by a union urging people to boycott Duane Reade. Sure, it was funny, but I don't think my amusement was worth the pollution and decreased traffic visibility.
Where did you obtain the picture of the MAP truck? Did you have permission to use this picture?
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