Have We Entered the Visual World of "Blade Runner?"

[Lady Day]

...people had become desensitized by overexposure. I think we're reaching a state now where the same thing is happening with advertising in general, and all these weird novelty ad campaigns, like with the eggs and all, are simply last-ditch efforts to avoid that.

Thats one reason I got rid of my TV. I see it all the time and I needed to cleanse my palette, so to speak. It amazes me the amount of psychological manipulation goes into much advertising today, nad why grabbing brand loyalty out of the youngest of us is 'essential' to businesses. When they have mapped your projected spending on their product (hate that word) for the next X years, they need to get'm young.

...I suppose the subway cars and taxi interiors will be next...

In taxis in SF, already here.

..... my wife Helen spent about 15 years in Sevastopol, Ukraine, before coming to the USA with me. When I went over to visit her one of the things that absolutely floored me (in a good way) was the absence of advertising in almost all of the Crimea. It gave the whole place a much more rustic and even romantic flavor....

Ahhh, I can only imagine the wonderful quiet of that.

..Not since my early 20's have I walked around with any logo on my clothing. I realized I am paying a lot of money for clothes and should not be giving away free advertising. I think people who walk around "branded" with a Nike, Sean John, Gucci, etc. logo on their person are being taken advantage of.

I with you on this one 100%!! I hate that I would have just paid $200 for a bag that has your logo plaster ALLL OVER IT any you say thats the design. PLuah-ease!:rage:

I always wanted to do an animated short on this topic:
A man comes home from work after a busy day and gets a call. "No," he says, "Im gonna stay home and watch my favorite tv show." He gets a beer, popcorn, and his favorite chair. On the wall across from him is this MAMOTH TV. He takes the chair and scoots it only inches from the screne, it engulds him. He turns on the set and presto, his watching area is 3"X3". All the rest of the wall size set is filled with flashing ads.

Not unlike today. Or at least getting close.

LD

 

[Haversack]

The history of advertising is interesting at so many levels: Economics, Architecture, Media, Technology, Perception Management...

As technologies and settlement patterns of Americans have changed over the past 100 years, so too has advertising. With the increase of urbanizaiton in the late 19th C., one of the most ubiquitious types of advert was the painted building. The sides or backs of buildings would be painted to advertise a product or business, (often located in the building painted). While not visible from the street in front of the building, they could usually be clearly seen from some form of transit, (trains, bridges, ferries, riverboats, etc.) In towns all over the US you can see the faded ads for all sorts of businesses and products. Sometimes old signs are uncovered when remodeling takes place like the high-rise Shasta Cola sign that recently came to light for a few days in San Francisco. In big cities, these graduated into animated light sculptures. My two favourite in San Francisco were the 3-dimensional Hamm's Beer goblet near Seals Stadium that constantly filled itself till the foam overflowed, and the Folgers Coffee sign depicting the Persian Gentleman with his cup that you could see from the Bay Bridge, (along with the aroma from the Hills Brothers, MJB, and Folgers coffee roasters that all used to be there. Multi-sensory advertising is nothing new). Even in rural America the barn painted with the Mail Pouch Tobacco sign on its roof was everywhere. One thing that has changed is that there are far fewer billboards out along the highways. In the late 1950s and early 1960s there were 100s of full-size billboards along freeways in rural America. Often these would be purposely situated to interupt a view. I can remember Hwy 101 between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara having concentrations of billboards whereever you could see the ocean from the road. The thinking was that if you were going to be looking over that way anyway, we want your eyeballs on something which will make us money. It was getting pretty ugly in some of the country's most scenic sites. Lady Bird Johnson was instrumental in getting this changed. Of course in urban areas, large billboards are still common. A few years back a few billboard-sized plasma screens started showing up here in the Bay Area along Hwy 101. Initially they were so bright they were hazardous to night-drivers. They're still restricted to still photos.

Advertising in the large scale public venue has decreased in the aggragate. What I think has really changed in the past 25 years is the intrusion of ads into the small and individual-scale public venues, (the afore-mentioned taxi and urinal ads), and the private venue, (ads in games, etc.) Whenever a new media is created or discovered, advertising is usually the second unintended use to which it is put. Both Blade Runner and Futurama have that pretty straight.

Haversack.

 

[jake_fink]

There are screens over the urinals in one of the bars I frequent. When you step up to do your thing the screen launches an ad not unlike a television commercial ONLY LONGER!!!! If you have to really go and manage to stand there even longer than the ad it will replay. The worst thing was when they were first installed they started with someone saying, Hello, before launching the ad. That was just creepy, and I guess the company agreed, since the machines no longer greet me.

They still bug me though.

 

[Rundquist]

I think Blade Runner's look was trying to emulat the look that was already in Hong Kong and Japan. New York was catching up and has, though LA is a far cry from the Blade Runner look portrayed. I think LA is just too much of a stew and will take more time before there is enough density in the inner city to warrant that much light at night. Go to LA after 10:00 and it's like walking into the Thriller Video. Go to New York after 2:00am and it's still hopping.

So.. I don't think we are near what was portrayed in Blade Runner. Could it become that way? yeah... though overseas first.

Actually Los Angeles has more people per square mile than New York City. It happened a few years ago. New York having nightlife and LA not having it past 2 AM doesn't have anything to do with people density.Life in the big city becomes more and more like Blade Runner everyday. It’s amazing how prophetic that movie was.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

There are screens over the urinals in one of the bars I frequent. When you step up to do your thing the screen launches an ad not unlike a television commercial ONLY LONGER!!!! If you have to really go and manage to stand there even longer than the ad it will replay. The worst thing was when they were first installed they started with someone saying, Hello, before launching the ad. That was just creepy, and I guess the company agreed, since the machines no longer greet me.

They still bug me though.

Talk about having a captive audience! That's really a lowdown trick. Anything for a buck.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I'd aim up and take a leak on the screen.

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