In the Editors Blog, Ode's editorial staff members provide an intelligently optimistic take on the news—and write about what's not in the headlines but should be.
A green billboard is still pollution
An eco-friendly billboard will be installed in Times Square in New York CITY next month. Fitted with 16 wind turbines and 64 solar panels, this 47-foot-tall and 126-foot-wide billboard will generate its own electricity and save thousands of dollars on monthly energy bills.
Great news? Well, yes, sort of, I guess. But aren’t billboards mainly irritating because they’re mental and visual pollution? After all, billboards are everywhere and they seem hard to avoid. Brands are Infiltrating every aspect of our lives and polluting our mental environment, as the Canada-based culture jammers group Adbusters has been arguing for many years.
In 2004, Ode wrote about how some activists dream of filing suit against heavy advertisers. A great idea, but in the end, it seems to take a politician to really weed out the billboards, as the mayor of Sao Paulo, Brazil, proved last year.
Walking in Times Square, you wouldn’t notice that there's something environmentally friendly. But you do know there’s someone out there trying very hard to colonize your mind. It’s that green billboard.
You're right, talk about visual pollution. I've been to Time Square once and it gave me a headache. However, think of how much Times Square shows up in mass media. We see it as the backdrop of popular news shows, in movies, in trailers to "Sex in the City", in commercials, etc. In a sense, it is its own advertisement for becoming environmentally responsible. Its making a statement that needs to be made and needs to reach "mass media" in that respect, I think it may be a good thing.
posted by katiek on 11/17/2008 8:39 pm