Yesterday came back to Glasgow via a different bus route to usual. Needed to see where I was so I could get off at the right stop. Normally would use the windows for this purpose, being that in the year 3000 BC man first created glass, and in 1902 Irving W Colburn patented the sheet glass drawing machine, making the mass production of glass windows possible, (it’s transparency being it’s unique selling point, ideal for looking through). Not that simple I’m afraid – the bus was covered in a massive advert. The windows were covered in this printed â??meshâ?? – supposedly transparent but which actually renders them completely opaque, particularly on an overcast day in Glasgow.
Bigger is not necessarily better and until advertisers wake up to the effects their one-way advertising assualts on our cities affect citizens, they will constantly find themselves fighting this war of attrition where they keep shouting louder and louder and the audience raises it’s barriers higher and higher.
N.B. Interesting take on relationship between ad spend, consumption, CO2 and a possible diversion into the re-design of products and services posted by John Thackara â??here.â??