"As a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every prospect pleases, man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard. When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes who will travel around the world on silent motor bicycles, chopping down posters at the dark of the moon."
David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1963

In 1971, the average American encountered 560 daily advertising messages. By 1997 that number had increased to over 3,000 per day.
David Shenk, Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut, 1997

As citizens of a "new branded world" (Naomi Klein, No Logo), we have a general understanding that we are viewed by corporations primarily as consumers, targets for advertising that becomes more and more invasive each year. Even if you never turn on the television, never check your email or surf the web, never read a magazine or newspaper, how much advertising has pervaded the physical world in which you live and travel? This project aims to understand the extent to which advertising has changed the urban environment and how the commercial landscape may or may not reflect the socioeconomic landscape of neighbborhoods and communities.

Locations

Advertising data was recorded from three neighborhoods in New York City: East Harlem, a historically poor, primarily Latino neighborhood; SoHo, a downtown shopping district; and the Upper East Side, a wealthy residential area. In each neighborhood, ads were recorded in a five-block section that consisted of two avenue blocks and three adjacent street blocks.

Read more about the neighborhoods >

Methodology

The most challenging aspect of the project was determining what counts as an advertisement and what doesn't. For the purposes of the project, a store's sign was not considered an advertisement, but any additional posters or signage that promoted products or services were counted as advertisements. Additionally, only stationary ads were counted as part of the survey. Undoubtedly, we are subjected to far more ads than are counted in this survey if you include ads on buses, clothing, shopping bags, etc., but this project attempts to show the advertising that has become intertwined with the permanent architectural structures that make a place or neighborhood.

Bio

Adscape was conceived and built by Alexis Lloyd as part of the MFA Design and Technology Program at Parsons The New School for Design. Alexis is a multimedia designer and information architect with extensive experience in both educational and commercial projects. She has played a lead role in the creative and technical development of numerous award-winning new media projects for Columbia University, New York University, News Corporation, and the BBC, among others. These projects have included online courses, museum kiosks, interactive learning tools, e-journals, and educational websites. She is currently working towards an MFA in Design and Technology at Parsons School of Design.