Are you relatively new to this bustling metropolis? Don't be shy about it, everyone was new to New York once upon a time... except, of course, those battle-hardened residents who've lived here their whole lives and Know It All. One of these lifers works among us at Gothamist—publisher Jake Dobkin grew up in Park Slope and currently resides in Brooklyn Heights. He is now fielding questions—ask him anything by sending an email here, but be advised that Dobkin is "not sure you guys will be able to handle my realness." We can keep you anonymous if you prefer; just let us know what neighborhood you live in.
This week's question comes from a New Yorker who's sick of all the corporate advertising saturating the city.
Jake,
You may have noticed that giant H&M logos are now on all four sides of the top of 4 Times Square.
In my opinion, this dramatically alters the Midtown skyline for the worse. What are our local regulations regarding putting corporate logos on our skyscrapers? We all know that the Verizon logo seen from the Brooklyn waterfront is a black eye on an otherwise breathtaking view (and the building that hosts the logo is also pretty hideous looking by itself.) Are these buildings given some sort of special permission to turn themselves into billboards? Or are all of the other buildings just too classy to do it? If the spaces atop our buildings are for sale, why doesn't every skyscraper have a logo? Why doesn't the new Bank of America Tower have their logo?
The H&M logo bums me out every time I'm confronted with an otherwise gorgeous skyline view. Do I just need to get over it? I know there is a history of NYC skyscraper logos from Pan Am to Metlife, but this bright red "H&M" is particularly offensive to me.
Signed,
Missing the "4"
A Native New Yorker responds:
Dear "4,"
Welcome to our fine city! I can tell you are a new arrival, because you have recently visited Times Square, an area that we natives zealously avoid. With its throngs of tourists, Guy Fieri chain restaurants, and seizure-inducing signage, it seems like a parody of everything that's offensive about America‚ like a description of our country that you'd read in Al Queda's in-house magazine. That's probably why whenever I'm there I worry about the risk of an imminent terrorist strike: do you ever notice that in movies, no one detonates the nuclear bomb in Brooklyn or Queens? It's always Times Square or Grand Central. It'll probably also be the first place going down when ebola comes to America. You should spend less time worrying about the ads and more time thinking about how fast you can get on a Citibike and pedal the hell out of here!
Jake Dobkin basks in the glow of beer and commercialism. (Courtesy Private Jake Dobkin Collection)
But let's say you can't, because you're an actor at a Broadway theater or an intern at Conde Nast. In that case, you must simply tough it out, because Times Square is one of the few zoning districts in NYC where advertising on buildings is not simply permitted, but is actually required. The city mandates a certain amount of signage on each building, to preserve the bright, blinky, nausea-inducing "character" of the district. Presumably, given the extremely exacting signage requirements of our Department of Buildings, the H&M sign on top of 4 Times Square is included in this mandate. The city also has laxer rules for companies advertising on buildings in which they are located, so if there is an H&M at 4 Times Square, that'd make it even easier for them to put up a sign there.
We natives allow this for three reasons. First, as I said, we rarely go to Times Square, so we are not personally affected by the signage. Second, we recognize that tourists are attracted to blinking lights like moths to flames, and we enjoy the tax revenue their hotel rooms, tour-bus rides, and show attendance generates. Third, by concentrating advertising in just a few districts like Times Square and Midtown, we are able to almost entirely ban large-signage from residential areas.
Under the latter part of the Bloomberg administration, these rules were enforced very seriously, to the point that the city actually removed a lot of illegal billboards that were previously ignored. That's why you currently see so many blank signs off the BQE and other "arterial roads".
Some cities, like Sao Paolo, have taken things even further and banned public advertising entirely: "a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash." In a country like ours, where corporations are "people" and advertising is considered a form of "free speech", we will never achieve a victory like that.
The best we can hope for is to reduce the volume of ads in areas where we live and work, thus preserving some small measure of peace of mind amid the clamor of materialism that constantly engulfs us. In the zone of quiet that we create, perhaps we can think about some of the things those ads distract us from. For instance, why, in a nation with so much obvious material wealth, is there still such poverty?
There are other alternatives! Even in Times Square, you don't have to just sit there like a turnip and burn in the UV rays of the signs. Some graffiti artists have taken to "culture-jamming" signage, as a way of taking back visual public space from corporations. Groups like Improv Everywhere also stage stunts that critique and subvert our advertising culture. One expert on this kind of art is our recent visitor Banksy, who once wrote:
"People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity. FUCK THAT. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe then any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs."
Of course, it's pretty hard to get up to the top of 4 Times Square to do something like that, and also my ad sales department reminds me that H&M is a valued advertiser who makes "high-quality fast-fashion for men, women, teenagers, and children" so please don't go all Project Mayhem on them. A better solution might be to raise the issue of whether the Times Square signage should be allowed on top of the buildings as opposed to just the street-side fronts, with your local media outlets and politicians, to see if some reasonable changes to the law can be made.
Or get a new job that doesn't require you to ever set foot within a mile of Times Square, and live in peace!
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