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A Rough Guide to Manhattan "Ad Creep"
Sat. May 27 • noon to 5 p.m. • Times Square From the makers of Stay Free! magazine comes a satirical tourist map of Manhattan–one focused entirely on advertising. Saturday, May 27, Stay Free! will hand out maps in Times Square. That day we will also launch Ad Creep Online, an "interactive" web map and online discussion board, at www.stayfreemagazine.org/admap.
In September 1999, 35 volunteers scouted out Manhattan’s major thru-ways, taking notes on the level and nature of outdoor advertising. Thus was born New York’s Great Outdoors, a map noting unusual or otherwise noteworthy examples of "ad creep:" painted sidewalk ads, "wrapped" buses and street blimps, mobile displays, etc. The back of the map will have a list of ways residents can fight ad blight and a timeline of Manhattan advertising, including Camel’s "smoke-rings" billboard, State Farm’s neon Umbrella, and Reebok sidewalk ads.
The map will also be inserted into a special issue of Stay Free! and distributed free to local organizations. Stay Free! is a nonprofit magazine focussed on issues surrounding commercialism and American culture.
For more information, contact Carrie McLaren at (718) 398-9324 or Rachel Neumann (718) 302-4088.