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Like a linebacker smashing his way past a hapless offensive tackle en route to putting a bone-rattling hit on the quarterback, the commercials in an average NFL broadcast are relentless. Pop, pop, pop: There’s Denis Leary growling about the virtues of a mud-spattered truck. Bang, bang, bang: There’s the CGI lizard who sounds vaguely like Jude Law, talking up car insurance. Biff, bam, bing: There’s the umpteenth beer spot, the seemingly inexhaustible wireless ad, the latest auto commercial featuring that increasingly manic spokeswoman.
It doesn’t have to be that way. While it may be a dicey position to take in a publication devoted to the business of advertising, the sheer volume and metronomic repetition of the ads in a typical NFL game can make a lazy Sunday afternoon on the couch feel like running an Oklahoma drill without a helmet.
Last year, commercial time in regular-season games on CBS, Fox, NBC and NFL Network — ESPN carries a lighter ad load than its fellow NFL broadcast partners — averaged out to around 21 minutes per hour, or a little more than a solid hour per game. The average for pretty much everything else on TV? 15 minutes, according to Nielsen.
Now we have Banksy. Thanks to complaints, the above mural was removed by the council of England citing it contained insensitive and racist remarks.” Sorry, did I say complaints? I meant complaint. Disregarding the Guardian’s headline, the article makes that clear.
“Nigel Brown, communications manager for Tendring district council, said it had received a complaint on Tuesday that “offensive and racist remarks” had been painted on a seafront building. ‘The site was inspected by staff who agreed that it could be seen as offensive and it was removed this morning in line with our policy to remove this type of material within 48 hours,’ he said.”
The above mural, which is at face value, a social commentary on racism, and nothing more than that. Though the Guardian makes reference to the mural appearing at a time when an MP has defected to UKIP, who much like the Sweden Democrats and some GOP front runners in America, are seen as wanting to limit immigration, or intolerant xenophobes depending on which narrative fits your narrative. But it could also be a reaction to British Poles going on strike and donating blood to prove their importance. A sort of #PolishLivesMatter if you would.
My point is, as simplistic as Bansky murals sometimes are, it’s also simplistic to merely take this mural (or indeed any art) at face value only. Banksy could be making a a commentary on what is happening locally, or what is happening globally when it comes to intolerance. Or he could be making a comment on the intolerance of outrage culture, that demands we don’t do or say or think anything unless previously approved by some oppressive regime on social media.
What I know is this: To read the above mural as racist you’d have to be…living in 2015. The era of trigger warnings. Where a joke or word or phrase can turn someone into the next Hitler overnight. In 2015, shutting someone up and shouting someone down is considered high art. May the shrillest voice with the most retweets win.
But what do they win in this particular case? They win the right to suppress art. They win the end of debate, discussion, and healthy arguments. They win the right to put a topic they don’t want to discuss in a wasp’s nest, then lock it in a safe and throw away the key. But the problem with living in 2015 is that you can’t lock anything up anymore. You can rip a piece of art off a wall but the point has already been made and the image has already propagated.
To be honest, I could usually take Banksy or leave him. But I have a theory and this theory about this mural and it has changed my mind about him. Here goes:
I believe that this was planned from the start by Banksy. Not as a commentary on UKIP, or Sweden or Donald Trump. While that is a very valid if not rudimentary way to read it, I believe this is actually a commentary on the neurotic and absurdist state of today’s outrage culture that only grows crazier by the day. I’ll even go so far as to say I believe Banksy was the one who called in the single complaint (or called a few times if there indeed turn out to be multiple ones) and then waited, not too long, mind you, until the outrage police showed up and the mural was removed.
All it takes to go viral is a mural, a prank call, and the social experiment wheels were set in motion. Of course, he’ll never say if he orchestrated it. But regardless, I want to believe this was the intent because if so, this is one hell of a meta piece of art that will start so many conversations that regardless of intention, silencing it will be all but impossible.
And if that’s the case then Banksy can retire, because this is his masterpiece.
Every weekday, we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new and trending TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, a company that catalogs, tags and measures activity around TV ads in real time. The New Releases here ran on TV for the first time yesterday. The Most Engaging ads are showing sustained social heat, ranked by SpotShare scores reflecting the percent of digital activity associated with each one over the past week. See the methodology here.
Among the new releases, frustrated travellers text and tweet about fees and obstacles associated with using their credit card miles until pitchwoman Jennifer Gardner presents a simpler option in a spot for Capital One’s Venture card. Meanwhile, Adidas-owned TaylorMade tips its hat to PGA champion golfer Jason Day in the latest “Made for Greatness” ad.
And a beloved pet gets down and dirty with his canine pals while his masters are out of the house. The ruckus-making dogs rush to clean up as the family pulls into the driveaway. And the owners are none the wiser thanks to the Pergo flooring, which is left unscathed.
The studio has a string of nine hits out of its last 10 releases with a range of nonsuperhero films, including “Jurassic World” and “Minions.”
What’s inspiring about a dusty patch of ground in Venice, Calif., populated with a few scraggly weeds and hemmed in by a chain link fence? Plenty, according to the team at 72andSunny’s in-house creative residency, 72U.
The six-member group looked at the forlorn piece of property and saw an opportunity for a community gathering spot and open-air workspace. Using crowdsourced info, they spent eight weeks creating a 1,500-square-foot pop-up park with free wi-fi, portable desks, fences that convert to tables and art installations. The space on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, meant to “inspire and connect the community,” its designers say, will be open for nine months.
It’s the latest project from 72U, which gathers creative thinkers from outside the traditional ad world, tosses them together for three months and challenges them to create art-meets-technology-meets-culture concepts. Other fruits of the program’s labor include a Craigslist-style interactive music video and two four-story murals about privacy in the digital age.
Production company Stinkdigital has named Jacinte Faria its L.A. office executive producer. Ms. Faria began on the agency side as a producer at Taxi Toronto before becoming executive producer at production companies including Soft Citizen/Hard Citizen, Acne L.A. and B-Reel L.A. Her work includes projects for Google, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, G.E., HP and Toyota. She was also EP on the popular internet film “Shit Girls Say.”
Trollback & company has hired Chace Hartman as creative director and Thomas Edwards as art director. Mr. Hartman, whose skills include design, illustration and motion graphics, previously worked at companies such as Ebeling Group, Digital Kitchen, Brand New School, MK12, Hush, Superfad and has worked on campaigns for AT&T, American Express, Verizon, Toyota, Pepi and more. Currently he’s directing an animated show open for Antiques Roadshow’s first redesign since it launched in 1997. He’s also designing titles for a Sheraton Hotels ad.
The agency will use the investment of undisclosed size from the activist hedge fund operator for expansion, including the acquisition of a music agency.
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Could this part-time McDonald’s worker in Taiwan become the next Alex from Target?
The stunning, porcelain-doll-faced gal, who has earned the unofficial title of “McDonald’s Goddess” to go along with her adorable nickname, WeiWei, appears in a series of workplace photos that reportedly have folks rushing to the fast-food joint for a gander at her.
The Taipei City restaurant should be used to this kind of attention by now, since Wei Han Xu and her fellow burger slingers have been dressing as maids, cheerleaders and other cosplay favorites for the last few years. WeiWei, a student and aspiring model who could easily double as an anime character, has seen a jump in her Facebook and Instagram followings—now about 150,000 fans combined—since the snapshots made their way to social media. She’s also snagged a few appearances on local variety and talk shows.
But she has yet to reach the lofty heights of Texas teenager Alex, with his 1.9 million Instagram and 750,000 Twitter followers. That poor kid, though, had to hide in the stockroom after his photo, shot surreptitiously and posted on Tumblr, went viral. (His managers at Target said there were too many lovesick girls creating chaos in the place.)
Despite her notoriety, or maybe because of it, WeiWei is still, by all accounts, working the front counter.
Um novo festival de filmes anunciado esta semana pode ser um ponto de partida para quem quer divulgar curtas feitos com drones. Chamado de Flying Robot International Film Festival, o objetivo dele é “celebrar o cinema aéreo da perspectiva dos drones” e as inscrições foram abertas esta semana. Não ache, no entanto, que serão exibidos […]
> LEIA MAIS: Festival internacional de filmes criados com drones abre inscrições
Post originalmente publicado no B9
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
