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>unilaterally imposing your sense of aesthetic to everyone else ...is what billboards do as well. And certainly they have more nefarious purposes than just "ma
by bondarchuk 3y ago
>unilaterally imposing your sense of aesthetic to everyone else
...is what billboards do as well. And certainly they have more nefarious purposes than just "marking territory" or getting cred or just showing off your skill at writing stylized letters.
- anon291 3y agoI completely agree with you. If a billboard company puts up a billboard against the property owner's will and then claims they can't take it down because it's their preferred form of art, and it's really truly their right to place billboards wherever they want, I believe the company should be dissolved, its executives jailed, and the proceeds of the asset sale distributed to those wronged. Now lets apply the same standard to graffiti.
- bondarchuk 3y agoFor me it's not so much about the property owner who owns the place where the billboard or graffiti is put up, but the people who are forced to look at it when they walk around town. From that perspective I think graffiti and billboards are about equally lacking in free choice on the part of who has to look at them, and billboards aim to manipulate you, grab as much attention as possible, and make you spend money, while graffiti is mostly just sitting there. So as long as cities are full of billboards I will never complain about graffiti.
- RestlessMind 3y ago> but the people who are forced to look at it Those people have rights to vote for politicians, or run for local offices, who control such billboards. They should exercise those rights.
- JohnFen 3y agoSure, but until/unless they are successful, they're still being forced to put up with that corporate graffiti.
- RestlessMind 3y agoSo, only one election cycle? Given that corporate graffiti has been around for centuries maybe, I guess no one really cares about it being there.
- anon291 3y agoYou do not have a right to not see other people or their things. That is not a right. Your rights end the moment you're talking about someone else's being. What next? The right not to look at children? Come on, this is ridiculous. Corporations are groups of people and people have a basic human right to congregate. Personally, I like some grafitti, but I'm absolutely against tagging. It is immoral, unethical, and thuggish behavior. When property owners put up graffiti of their own (or commission an artist to do it), I think it can be a nice splash of color in an urban environ.
- 4gotunameagain 3y ago> is what billboards do as well not really. in theory there is some kind of process where we could collectively decide about the existence / frequency / size of billboards, as can be seen in many towns that have advertising banned, or as can be seen when you contrast New York with any European city. with wanna be gangster teenagers and adults with Peter Pan syndrome ? not really. p.s. I hate billboards as well, if you ask me both should not exist
- bondarchuk 3y agoIn theory we could ask all graffiti artists kindly to stop doing it. I think both are about equally realistic. (Any European city save a few exceptions still has billboards btw).
- 4gotunameagain 3y agoThere are cities where billboards are not allowed, and also I did not say that European cities do not have billboards, I said that there is a stark contrast between European cities and New York, due to regulations. Times square is a disaster the magnitude of which cannot be found in Europe.
- nsp 3y agoHonestly there are relatively few billboards in nyc outside of Times Square relative to somewhere like Houston
- freejazz 3y ago>Times square is a disaster the magnitude of which cannot be found in Europe. Who is Times Square for but Europeans and other tourists? Do you think New Yorkers go there to see the latest billboards? I feel bad for anyone I know who has to work in the few big towers in times square.
- 4gotunameagain 3y agoAre you suggesting that it is because of Europeans that Times Square is a clusterfuck? Europe has destinations that are way more touristic than Times Square, and you cannot find this atrocity.
- RestlessMind 3y agoBillboards are what we all agree to be put there via a bunch of means, like electing local politicians who agree on laws and regulations about billboards. If you don't like them and find enough like-minded colleagues, very easy to get them banned. Sao Paulo managed that.
- JohnFen 3y ago> very easy to get them banned. It is the exact opposite of this. It's extraordinarily difficult. That some cities have done it shows that it's possible, not that it's easy.
- RestlessMind 3y agoOr, a lot of people just don't care about billboards and would rather have the revenue from putting ads there. City and the billboard owners benefit and no one is passionate enough to counter them politically.
- JohnFen 3y agoIn my opinion, billboards are just as bad as graffiti for this reason.