(This via the blog Adland.)
“People are taking the piss out of you everyday.
They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small.
They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else.
They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate.
They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it.
They are “The Advertisers” and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them.
Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.
Fuck that.
Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours.
It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use.
You can do whatever you like with it.
Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
You owe the companies nothing.
Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy.
They owe you.
They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you.
They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.”
~ Banksy
Personally I’m with Banksy on this.
We do come uninvited into people’s lives.
If we can’t do that in an amusing, informative, fun way, we shouldn’t do it at all.
If we’re interrupting their newspaper, barging our way into their living rooms, annoying them on their laptops, defacing their landscape.
If that’s all we’re doing, no wonder they don’t like it.
I wouldn’t.
You wouldn’t.
Banksy says we’re intruding.
Fair enough, we are.
And when we do that, the only way to get away with it is to do something they like.
Make it a fun, enjoyable experience.
That’s just polite.
Anything else is rude, boorish and crass.
Just like the sales calls we get at home, when we’re in the middle of something else.
They don’t care what we’re doing, they just want us to shut up and be sold to.
No wonder we get angry.
And advertising like that is just the same.
It deserves to be defaced, switched off, or ignored.
No wonder 90% of it doesn’t work.
Most advertising is just visual pollution.
Always agreed with Banksy.
As you’ve stated before Dave:
If we want to sell to people we need to give them a reason to listen.
Banksy sells himself all the time.
People are interested, so they listen.
If they weren’t, he’d be nothing.
Stephen Buss - 20 February 2012 9:52 am
Nice, Dave. “No wonder we get angry”, you say.
Even as a non-consumer (copywriter), it annoys me a lot how so many times agency people and clients insist that interrupting, barging, annoying and defacing is the way yo go.
Robin. - 20 February 2012 10:16 am
Good morning Dave,
Would you say ‘conversational’ advertising or ‘pulling’ consumers towards a brand/service, as opposed to ‘pushing’, is the way forward?
Would you say this ‘new’ strategy, http://blog.marketing-soc.org.uk/2012/02/peter-fisk-on-film/, is missing the point in that you still have to engage with consumer no matter what tactics are used.
Maybe there is only a problem when push comes to shove.
john p woods - 20 February 2012 10:17 am
I think most of us live with the same desire and desperate aspiration to put interesting and ‘good’ work in front of people, but is it always possible?
Banksy only has one client; himself. No account directors, no planners, no brand managers, no committee. Just him and his natural alignment with the rest of the pissed off public (Thanks to that despised 90%).
I do think that he is a bit hypocritical though, don’t you?
Banksy is in advertising whether he likes or not. He is invading space without permission too, and im willing to bet not everyone finds it interesting. The same as most advertisements.
CJ - 20 February 2012 10:29 am
Hi CJ,
I think that’s a very fair and reasonable response.
I can see both sides.
Nicely put.
Dave Trott - 20 February 2012 10:41 am
To paraphrase the late Bill Hicks: you know what Banksy’s doing here? He’s going for that anti-marketing dollar. That’s a good market. He’s very smart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo
Chris - 20 February 2012 11:15 am
Dave, I’m looking out my office window – There’s an ugly grey building disturbing my view of the Atlantic ocean.
I’d say that 90%+ of everything created by humans could be described as visual pollution, or worse.
Grilla Login - 20 February 2012 11:30 am
Banksy is pushing whilst giving the illusion he’s pulling, wouldn’t you say?
Does it all come back to the relationship we have with taking on board ‘messages’?
Some don’t mind listening no matter but some need the perception that they are the ones who are truly in control.
john p woods - 20 February 2012 11:35 am
One last thing, wouldn’t you say all this, ‘I’m your friend’ type advertising is a throw back to the ‘Snake Oil’ salesmen of yesteryear?
Smack the phoney, I’d say.
john p woods - 20 February 2012 12:02 pm
Banksy hasn’t fed, clothed or entertained millions of people or contributed to millions of peoples pensions (thin ice there maybe). I do worry about the anti-big business stance, although I do get it. Do we revert to a nation of shop-keepers? Or is it just a matter of showing a bit of a respect? How woolly are most large corporations CSR programmes?
Jim - 20 February 2012 12:08 pm
It seems much of what now comes under ‘advertising’ has (oddly) been designed to annoy.
Imagine going to meet a mate in the alehouse and as you’re chatting at the bar, there is someone just behind your mate waving and trying to get your attention.
Eventually you say “What?”
The feller says “Stop talking to him, listen to me, I’d like to talk to you about cheap car insurance”.
I don’t see any difference between this (DEAD ANNOYING PRICK) and flickering banner ads and distracting online..um..wot-not.
(seriously, has anyone ever asked “Do these ads make you feel well-disposed towards the product being advertised, or do they make you want to chop the head off an animal?”)
Also, imagine someone talking to you, but not only do they SHOUT andtalkfartoofast, but they repeat everything.
Ladies and gentlemen – 99.9% of all radio ads.
It seems we’ve gone from engaging (or trying to engage) with potential customers, to annoying the shite of people.
Not quite sure how or why this happened, but have a feeling it’s linked to people who wear black polo-necks, think lunch should be eaten at a desk and see smiling as a sign of weakness.
Eugene Ruane - 20 February 2012 1:50 pm
The ‘new’ thinking: a nudge is better than a nag, is revealing by the term ‘better than’.
Why is it all a competition? Can’t we just understand that some people respond quite favourably to being barked at and others you have to put a friendly arm around them.
Could it be some communication companies/individuals have an agenda?
Aren’t we big enough to accept we are all being played?
IMHO it seems quite simple, keep the message clear and concise and make it ‘entertaining’. No?
john p woods - 20 February 2012 2:27 pm
Sorry if I’ve come across as a nag to anyone who responds better to being nudged.
Here is a useful link to the nudge agenda:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuSKzE_Y07A&feature=relmfu
john p woods - 20 February 2012 2:41 pm
Agree John.
In the movie Stardust Memories, the aliens give Woody Allen some advice regarding what to do if “You want to do mankind a real service?”
Advertising imo would be improved greatly if we all bought into this advice.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ-I2qa0ZQY
Eugene Ruane - 20 February 2012 2:44 pm
Banksy’s a sanctimonious twat.
Even by today’s standards there’s more intelligent advertising around than graffiti.
Most graffiti is far more brutalist, uninvited and ugly.
Just because he’s managed to add some wit to his own daubings doesn’t mean we have to hang on his every word.
As it happens I agree with most of what he said.
But also I know that most creatives have got more integrity than the outside world would ever believe.
I just think we need to be ready to defend our industry a little more.
Advertising is regulated, legal, and promotes the competition that drives progress.
More than graffiti’s ever done.
Mark - 20 February 2012 3:31 pm
Of course Banksy is only trashing advertising to make himself look like the good guy.
Of course most graffiti (apart from Banksy) is just tagging, and an eyesore itself.
But this doesn’t make his criticism of most advertising any less true.
As my old art director, Mike Reynolds, used to say “You don’t have to be a chicken to know if an egg’s bad.”
Dave Trott - 20 February 2012 3:43 pm
Excellent post, Eugene. ‘Make it funnier’ is the most wonderful client critique you can ever get.
The most soul-destroying thing is the contrived metrics that people come up with to justify the most annoying work. ‘Second highest aided recall in its ad break’ or some such nonsense.
Al - 20 February 2012 3:48 pm
John
9. – ‘One last thing’
Grilla Login - 20 February 2012 3:51 pm
15. Mark & 16. Dave… Here, here!
(Sorry for making the posts look like bible quotations)
CJ - 20 February 2012 4:01 pm
1. If people hated advertising so much, they would have switched to paying full price for reading a newspaper, a magazine, for watching the news on tv or using web services like google mail a long time ago.
2. Advertisers paid for that spot where they’re advertising. That spot, be that a 30 second tv spot or a wall in a building, is owned by someone else. A mutual agreement to mutual benefit.
But doing it that way doesn’t get you any tv, newspapers and magazine coverage, (which exist thanks to those “evil” ads), which in turn won’t get you museum exhibitions which in turn won’t get you to sell many books and t-shirts.
There’s no business like the anti-business business. Right banksy?
Elmas - 20 February 2012 4:01 pm
Geez…..
What’s the world coming to….
Instead of make it more meaningful / make it more useful / make it work…..
make it more entertaining…. either the people we/you cater to are stupid as F**k or you just want to be something you’re not (Woddy Allen) or you are stupid as f**k.
I think that Banksy’s critique is just BECAUSE people just want to be funnier/more entertaining. If you are forgetting your clients message you are not only bothering people… you’re even bothering them for the wrong reason!
koningwoning - 20 February 2012 4:03 pm
Grilla,
Tell me about it. Been one of those days. I think my brain is still stuck in half term mode. Still, I’m glad I finally got through. For a time there it seemed like I was talking to myself…just like most advertising, eh?
john p woods - 20 February 2012 4:26 pm
Eugene,
Nail on the head.
john p woods - 20 February 2012 4:57 pm
I’m sure there’s some great ads on the internet.
Only trouble is, nobody sees them
Ha Ha !
That’s why Banksy is so on the money.
Kev - 20 February 2012 10:49 pm
Some interesting consumer research:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xEnM7aQbLg&feature=g-logo&context=G24bd067FOAAAAAAAAAA
Kev - 20 February 2012 10:58 pm
I didn’t much care for those ads promoting ‘Exit Throught The Gift Shop’.
Kevin Mills - 22 February 2012 11:29 am
I think you’ve all missed the point. It’s not about how you do it, it’s where you should be allowed to do it. The great Howard Gossage thought the same too.
JK - 22 February 2012 10:33 pm
That said, advertising does pay for all the best television shows, and most importantly the internet.
You dont get something for nothing.
Ben - 24 February 2012 1:12 pm
Banksy should be in advertising – killer copy!
I wonder how many ‘marketers’ could write this well?
He’s beaten us at our own game. He’s made us look as foolish as we have allowed our clients to make us look! And boy, do we ever deserve it…
Steve Wicks - 24 February 2012 4:06 pm
Thanks for that Dave! There’s a really interesting US documentary from last November (premiered at NYC DOC Film Festival); “This Space Available” about grassroots movements against visual pollution. Based around interviews with acitivists from many different fields. Worth a look! http://vimeo.com/31244106
Enni-Kukka Tuomala - 1 March 2012 10:14 am
I think he’s a populist pond skimmer that ignores a lot of the facts to suit himself. I’ve written an open letter to Banksy in reply: http://wordsarepictures.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/an-open-letter-to-banksy/
Craig Ward - 1 March 2012 3:21 pm
Well done, Banksy.
What a great way to get a bit of free advertising.
Dan - 1 March 2012 6:11 pm