Okay, so this doesn't directly deal with interior design, but it does deal with exterior design and the home that is the environment of our cities. Down in São Paulo, Brazil, the Paulistas completely stripped their public spaces of all advertising including neon signs, electronic panels and billboards as of the start of 2008...
Into the void stepped TOUCH and StraaT, to support the move and also help re-purpose all of the downed advertising. To start with, they are using the banners to make tote bags. This is how they put it:
"As the corporate media peels back its in-your-face advertisements the city is finally allowed to define its own beauty. Outside of communism, a city this large and expansive has never before been given a blank slate. Over-materialized citizens around the world are watching closely to see how the Paulistas, not the media, will exemplify their city.
In the meantime, as the city cleans up its image, there are heaps of propaganda garbage piling up with no place to go. A collaboration between TOUCH and StraaT turns the forbidden into fashion. Hundreds of banners have been reclaimed from post-consumer São Paulo and are ironically ushering their way out as tote bags. They are highly durable, one of a kind, limited edition relics of what is now history to Brazil's largest economy."
We had no idea that such a public ban on advertising was in the works and are VERY curious to see how it does affect São Paulo. Very interested indeed.
Meanwhile, the bags will available at "select US retailers" and also at TOUCH's online limited edition gallery.
Copyright © 2008 Apartment Therapy
alchemy goods has been doing something similar for a while. I have one of the ad bags and i love it.
http://alchemygoods.com/
view procrastikate's profile
god, i wish they'd ban billboards and building-side advertisements in LA. i come home every day with a headache.
view goodnightdean's profile
I love the idea of not having ads in my face all day. I'd love to see what their city is like now.
view AnnadyL's profile
Great ideas all around, and the bags actually look kind of cute!
view Alice33's profile
I'm surprised you hadn't heard about this, it was very big news!
I found a gorgeous Flickr set of Sao Paulo after the ad-ban:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonydemarco/sets/72157600075508212/
For those of you curious what the cityscape looks like now. It's strange, it's not just billboards gone, but signs over shops, even business names on the side of commercial vehicles. I think you can only have the name of your business written on your actual door to identify it.
It's inspiring!
It's neat that these bags have a bit of history in them, being the last ads from Sao Paulo, but the concept itself is a little worn out. I think you can even buy a kit from the ReadyMade store to make your own tote from a piece of outdoor advertising.
view jes's profile
This is so freakin' amazing! Man... this would never happen in America (we're so into shoving advertising down everyone's throat, any way possible!) I mean, this is seriously, whoa. To have an entire area like this just say NO more to advertising, and it go through. Man! Somedays I can see glimpses of what mankind COULD be...
- Nate
www.methodlust.blogspot.com
view Nathan Aaron's profile
As jes said, not just billboards are gone, but signs and business names on the streets...they made a law deciding the size of each one of these signs, based on how much meters you have on the front of your store or business...Sometimes it works, and sometimes don´t...Some stores are really nice because made the owners to repaint it and use colors and the city is not so grey as it was...But I think it was not necessary to ban all of advertising...Of course there was too much...But some of them bring information to the citizens also...
The mayor here in São Paulo should give attention to bigger problems in my city as violence and car traffic (São Paulo is the 3rd worst traffic in the world, just losing this title to some city in China and Mexico city). I don´t think he´s not too much concerned about the pollution and environment stuffs...Someday this city would not be space to put one more car on the streets...
(sorry for my english :)
view erika_ees's profile
Hey, it's better than my portuguese.
view Erika in Seattle's profile