Blog #7: Should we ban outdoor advertsing?

I went to a local Remembrance Day ceremony on Wednesday.  It was solemn, lovely.  My son’s choir sang. I watched as wreathes were laid to honour the dead.  Or were they? 

Lowes…
The Royal Bank…

No mention of any soldiers, no commemoration of bereaved parents or heroes.

Bank of Montreal…
ReMax…

I won’t mention any of the smaller businesses, at least they are local and maybe tied to the small ceremony in some ways.  Mom & Pops are people. But I couldn’t help but feel like I was at a corporate parade.  It felt like people were laying wreaths in order to advertise themselves.  No mention of who they were honouring or why. 

The kids’ choir stood patiently waiting for the list of names to be rattled off like it was a sports sponsorship appreciation gala so they could sing what they'd practiced. These box store names didn’t mean anything to them. They didn’t mean really anything to me. On some level, maybe they even tie these corporations with the Wars that have happened in their young minds who can't know yet what it all means. Some weird subconscious level… But wreath after wreath was placed.  For companies.  For businesses.  It felt like it was for nobody. It felt like it was putting the meaning of the day aside.

I’ve never seen this before, or didn’t I notice?  I go every year. I haven't noticed.

When did advertising like this become acceptable?  Is it because we’re so used to being bombarded with ads, and name dropping, and corporate sponsorship that it has become so normal that we will flock to a Santa Claus parade that has become little more than big business shoving its way in in disguise?

It really bothered me.  It really bothered me that the wreaths were laid for nobody.

Will banning outdoor advertisements make this kind of behaviour more common? Ads are important, but need to be relegated to appropriate locations. I say this because I like the manipulation game in advertising. I really like it. My brain goes to dark places.  What if we placed the ad inside the coffin?  It could cut down on funeral expenses for families.  My brain went there.  I banished the thought, but other people might not. Would not. Haven’t.  People who stand to make money or improve their public image might not.  Always in the name of progress.  Always in the name of good(?).

Our ideas sometimes come from sinister places, and we by nature push every limit past its breaking point.  Then we set a new breaking point to aim for and break.  It can be a really great thing, and it can be destructive and disturbing. 

So banning outright, no.  I don’t think so.  I think there are interesting places to advertise.  Murals, beautiful things.  Posts filled with decades of staples and art, inviting us to this or that.  Billboards on long boring drives. Motion graphics that someone made, toiling over typography and easing and copyright law, and brand guides.   It’s a cacophony of ideas and opportunities that say look at us, look at what we can do for you. It's a beautiful mess.

But when these things start to intrude on the sacred places, maybe it’s time to halt and reexamine our humanity.