Three years ago I was in Manhattan and a friend pointed out the white word-bubble stickers that someone was putting on lots of posters and other outdoor advertising. Then random people would fill in the bubbles with text. I thought it was a really great idea, a sort of empowerment and encouragement of anyone with a pen to talk back to ads and detourn them. Now there's a website about the project, explaining how artist Ji Lee had 50,000 of these stickers printed up. The site also features dozens of photos of examples of the uses the bubbles have been put to. Some of them are banal, some really creative and insightful.
Unfortunately Ji Lee also employs himself designing actual advertisements, including for such big clients as Coke and Tylenol.
Posted by steev at October 14, 2005 07:11 PM