Street Seen
You love my puns! You know you do.
Do you ever feel like you’re living a dream because your surroundings are so ridiculous? Let me give you an example, ads. Yes, advertisements. Like Catherine Deveny has pointed out before, you can say the word ’sex’ on prime-time television, in education and even in religious class, but for some reason the word must be censored on a billboard. Go figure. Here’s some more stupidity…
Last week I was walking down Smith Street and noticed some stencils on the footpath. No big deal. Campaigns from selling Lily Allen’s debut album to plugging psychic hotlines have used this medium in Melbourne to advertise in the past. But if there’s one establishment that has a strong stance against graffiti, claiming that there is no distinction between so-called vandalism and so-called street art, it’s the government. And granted that it’s usually local or state government rather than federal, but I thought it was rather curious that nonetheless, the federal government had chosen stencil sprayed on the footpath to advertise their anti-drugs campaign. I understand that they’re trying to reach their target audience, an audience that mainstream media industries find almost impossible to reach, but I can’t help but smell a whiff of hypocrisy. Well, it might not stop the graffiti, but at least kids will stop taking ecstasy, right?
Before I step down from my soapbox, here’s another: I was walking home from work, right outside the commission flats in Collingwood, and noticed this advertisement…
Another great campaign, reaching the appropriate audience 
EDIT (at the risk of violating blogosphere ethics here, thought I’d edit this, rather than comment, so our audience (Charles?) can see another fine example of hypocrisy I snapped when in Hong Kong).
2 comments 26th May 2009 Sim & Tris
