Green Thing Blog

(Image: MaSAT)

How  can you change people's behaviour when it comes to buying? How about a hijacking of the advert space?

A group called the Public Ad Campaign organises Street Advertising Takeovers across the world, getting teams of artists, sociologists, teachers, lawyers, gallerists, bloggers and activists to replace advertisements with their very own beautiful and thought provoking art work.

(Image: The Street Spot)

So far these guys have transformed the streets of New York, Toronto and most recently Madrid where, overnight, the Madrid Street Advertising Takeover team replaced 106 bus shelter adverts with short stories, poems and statements.

We love this bold and fantastic move. The artwork is a welcome relief from those commercial messages we are usually bombarded with at every street corner!

( Image: Jamie Alekos) 

We've all gone out shopping for the latest gizmo or fashion-must-have thinking "I want it, actually I need it, in fact it might just be the magical key to my happiness" only to come home feeling a bit sheepish and uncertain about our purchase. And doesn't it seem that no matter how much stuff we buy, we always get that hankering for more?

Well an obvious way to sidestep this silly consumer landmine is simply to Stick with What You Got. Or if you just have to shop, then safely scratch that itch and buy Nothing^TM at Amazero!

You do have to wonder though, what we would be like as consumers if our lovely public spaces were filled with inspiring messages and artwork instead of advertisements that scream 'BUY ME' or 'Shop 'til you drop'? It would definitely be a breath of fresh air.

(Image: Unruth)

Advertactivist, a new, UK based crowd funding platform, are also wondering about the power of advertising and replacing a typical commerical advert with something that has more meaning. They help you to get your favorite social campaigns some serious advertising space, so that they can replace ' shop, shop, shop! ' with positive social messages and hopefully make a little difference!

If you feel like most advertisements are All Spin and No Substance check out this lovely game and beat the sneaky ad folks at their own game!

Ps- If your curious to know, there are apparently 10 cognitive reasons that drive us to buy. Have a look.

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