Madrid’s Street Ad Takeover

The third of a series of civil disobedience projects aimed at changing the perception of expected public behavior has landed in Madrid in the form of a takeover of street ads throughout populated areas of the city. The Madrid Street Advertising Takeover (MaSAT) was launched by the Public Ad Campaign, an organisation that strives to change how humans interact with their environment.

At 5:30 am on March 30, four teams of 16 volunteers traversed the city of Madrid to the Cemusa bus shelters to replace over 106 advertisements with posters of sentimental messages, sent in from individuals from all over the world, in order to protest the rise of the advertising monopoly that has consumed city life. Each text-based ad cover-up was meant to show city-dwellers what positive things could be done with public space. Inspirational messages like "In love we trust" and "Cash has ruined everything around me" were plastered on bus stops over street ads.

It took about an hour for the project to be completed, but only around five hours for the posters to be taken down. This rebellious act, however short-lived, showed the world the possibilities for a better public environment. Our world doesn't have to be cluttered with billboards for BMWs or flyers for fancy restaurants, the advertising world has only become a monopoly because we've let it.

[via Wooster Collective]