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Artists and Activists Perform Large-Scale Guerrilla Street Advertising Hack

By Steve Kupferman

Yesterday and last night, a group of artists and activists working throughout downtown removed ad posters from street-level advertising pillars, and painted billboards with whitewash. In place of the ads, they posted artwork.
The project, known to participants as the Toronto Street Advertising Takeover, or TOSAT, had been months in the making, and was highly organized. All involved were operating under strict secrecy.
The group planned to hit forty-one advertising pillars, and twenty to twenty-five 10′ x 20′ billboards. Most of the ads chosen for this treatment were property of Pattison Outdoor Advertising, an ad company that maintains many advertising signs of various types in Toronto. Billboards owned by CBS and Astral Media were also hit. TOSAT organizers claim that they specifically targeted ads that were illegal. Torontoist cannot say with certainty that any of them were.
Here are some pictures of the results. [UPDATE: And here's how they did it.]
All photos by D.A. Cooper/Torontoist, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

  • http://undefined RedhawkHoosier

    Respect for private property is essential to living in a proper social system. Not happy to see thugs appropriating it to themselves for bad art.
    Practically, we can see the value of advertising diminished and thus parties that utilize it paying lower rates, hurting the institutions such as public transit that depend on that money.

  • http://undefined Rasters

    Respect for private property is hugely important – but ads and billboards by nature are “public”. Any business that relies on 3rd party ad revenues needs to reevaluate if they should continue operating. Public services might be an exception.
    Although it’s easy to accept the “free” money, at what expense does it come? Has all this advertising noise become an inescapable fact of city life, or have we just passively allowed that to be the norm? I loath the trucks that circle entertainment districts with billboards for shows and strip clubs. How do we accept this pollution of air, traffic, and mind as a permissible business.
    Hopefully one day someone will push things too far, so that we start *really* paying attention to the advertising blight. For $100,000 can I post a over sexualized teen for your family’s viewing pleasure? American Apparel anyone?

  • http://undefined deadrobot

    I agree with RedhawkHoosier. These asshats didn’t respect private property.
    At 3am this morning the oh-so-clever TOSAT dicks used my (landlord’s) property to access one of these billboards. Then proceeded to use an industrially loud staple gun to hang their shitty art. Hey! Garbage bags! Clever! How’s that whole “save the environment” thing going for you? Then proceeded to stand outside our window “congratulating” each other on fine work. Dicks.
    I’m all for culture jamming. I grok it. But these fucktards woke up my entire building. They woke people who have already been broken into at one point or another due to the city’s need to have access to this roof open because of fire regulations. In the past one of our neighbours was pistol whipped when confronting a trespasser so we’re all a bit gun-shy when it comes to confronting people traipsing across our roofs.
    I say “Shitty job, you Queen Street Rejects”!

  • http://www.realjohnson.com TheRealJohnson

    So you respect avant garde art…just as long as it doesn’t wake you up? OK then.
    As for complaining about public property and lost revenues, they didn’t actually damage anything or hurt anyone (deadrobot’s beauty sleep notwithstanding). And are you really that worked up that CBS and Astral Media may lose a little income so that our city can be a little bit more mysterious, cool, and interesting?
    I’d rather look at art than ads and I don’t care if some big corporations are affected as a result – in fact I think I like that.

  • http://undefined The Junkyard Triangle

    Woken up by a really loud staplegun? This really is the softest place in the world.

  • http://undefined deadrobot

    The staple gun and the talking was loud enough to wake up people in at least two apartments – our neighbours above were woken by it too.
    Compared to the other pieces, we got the shitty artist, which makes me madder. I respect art when it’s done with intelligence. Not when it’s created with disregard for other people, their property or their well being.

  • http://undefined The Junkyard Triangle

    I like your comment about getting stuck with the shitty artist! This project seemed a lot cooler before I looked at the pictures.

  • Dry Brain

    Jesus. They don’t respect private property? These people aren’t breaking windows or defacing homes, they’re having a little fun with some billboards.
    Get over your outrage and lighten up.
    I too would rather look at art than ads. (And if the artists are correct in claiming that these ads were llegally placed, then good on them for pointing it out.)

  • http://undefined holly

    Yes, how dare these hooligans go and deface these illegal billboards cluttering up the city. I love Virgin Mobile and H&M ads.
    They were probably on bicycles too, taking up valuable road space to drive my car.
    I see they woke up at least one person with the noise of a staple gun, FOR SHAME! The city is usually so quiet at night, except for the crickets singing their evening song.

  • http://undefined deadrobot

    Wow.
    I realize this is a case of NIMBY, but come on. As far as I know, the billboard is not illegal, it’s been there for years. If it were, the Cabbagetown BIA would have removed it a long time ago, seeing how they think it’s an eyesore (note the art underneath it to compensate).
    Sure I’m grumpy this morning since I had yet another scare of suspecting being robbed while sleeping – in the name of “art”. Tell me where you live and I’ll create a little art piece of my own outside your window using trash bags and a hammer at 3am. Lets see how supportive you get.

  • mark.

    This is great! Love that people are still engaged in the world without acting like automatons filling out FOI requests and other forms.

  • http://undefined Green Sulfur

    You realize that ad revenue at the TTC is equal to a 5-cent fare hike, right?

  • http://undefined youdontsay

    It is great to see this type of peaceful expression in the streets. The third image is fantastic. Replacing illegal advertisements with plants? Yes please.

  • http://undefined rek

    Nice.
    Private property is one thing, but these structures exist for no other reason but reaching the public and consuming attention, without any direct benefit to us.

  • http://undefined lucky

    stand up and be heard, break the cycle of apathy! i applaud those that challenge the conventional wisdoms of our so called democratic system. heard a few thoughts against these culture jamming actions, but don’t buy into the neoliberal reasonings. how might one accept so much of the constant bombardment and rhetoric of a capitalist society that destroys culture and spirit? to see no value in encouraging critical thought by the acts of modifying belligerent ads, only prolongs the agony of our monoculture and props up multinational corporations. congratulations on a job well done!

  • http://undefined SharkBoyTO

    Art is art, but trespassing is still against the law.
    And to those wondering what an industrial strenght staple gun sounds like at 3 am? Baseball bats being swung again plywood, not the sound one likes to be woken up to after other trespassers once tried to break in to your flat while you were alone.
    I’m just wondering if it’s such a little thing, why didn’t they come and do this at 3pm instead of hiding in the middle of the night? I appreciate art a lot more in the afternoon.

  • http://undefined rubicon

    trespassing is still against the law… wow. we are continuously bombarded by advertisements. i would rather see art any day take its place. i would welcome one night of 3am banging if it meant people were actually showing initiative in such a positive way, in public spaces. why defend the rights of corporations? well, brainwashing is brainwashing after all…

  • http://undefined suburbanprisoner

    we really need to get over this fixation with private property. our ancestors certainly didn’t feel they were trespassing on the property of the first nations people. who gives a shit whether these ads are the “private property” of advertising companies. do you think advertising companies give a shit about you? all you are to them is potential profit.
    it’s not an easy job waking people up these days, but at these artists have the balls to try.

  • http://undefined Frank quite

    Unfortunately the artists and workers behind this operation will not be paid for their efforts. The rich corporations who pay for the space will bat an eyelash and the free art will be gone, hours of work destroyed in minutes. The space will be filled with a different kind of art. The kind that makes money by helping businesses remind the public about their products. If people didn’t buy the products, those companies wouldn’t have money to spend on billboards. The companies know what kind of art inspires consumers to buy their products, and the artists that make those ads get paid to create. Advertisements are art too, and the fact that the artists who create them get paid well for their work is a sign that what they are creating is appreciated by the majority of the populace. If people don’t like the ads, they won’t buy the products, and the company won’t have money to spend on billboards. Humans identify with brands, and seek to integrate those brands into their personal brands to let the world know who they are. It’s just too bad most people have poor taste. At least we can choose what to look at and what not to look at. You don’t have to look at a poorly designed ad just because it’s there. Take
    Responsibilty and a sense of agency over what you choose to observe.

  • http://undefined Butch

    Wow Fantastic Brilliant street Art, I applaud the TOSAT collective. Please ignore the always very few with small minds but loud opinions who don’t get it.
    ‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds’.
    Albert Einstein
    Thank you for your great spirit in putting your selves out there and working tirelessly through the night to bring art to your city and asking nothing in return. Whether people like or don’t like the actual art pieces is not the point. Please try to have more appreciation for the great minds that bring individuality and depth to your city through art.
    Good on ya! Somebody please pay the Artists!
    SDH
    Artistic Director of Pride in Art, Vancouver.

  • http://undefined deadrobot

    I’ve thought a lot about this after getting a good night’s sleep.
    This whole thing certainly got people talking, which is what (in my opinion) art is suppose to do. Ta da, you win, TOSAT!
    Their actions also gets back to the creative department who used Astral Media et all, where the suits see the chatter on the social networks and say “Holy crap! Our Cadbury ad was totally art bombed! But look at the noise! We need to make more ads like that!”
    And a campaign is born!. Ta da! More “artistic” ads thanks to the creative team from TOSAT!
    Yes, I get what TOSAT, ARTAttack, Posterchild and all those culture jammers are all trying to do and I appreciate their valour and guile – there are too many outdoor ads in Toronto. I agree. But these collectives are going up against a huge money machine that will always win.
    If I may bastardize a Jenny Holzer truism: Your actions are pointless if nobody notices after two days because Astral came along and covered your art.