We’re Gonna Replace All Advertising on Times Square with Art. Here’s How

BKB, one of Holland’s most successful campaigning agencies, organizes a talent academy every year. It consists of two study trips and ten meetings with well-known politicians, campaigners, and journalists. I’m participating the 2009-2010 edition and have learned quite a lot already. Better yet, I’ve found a couple of new friends. One of them, Justus Bruns, told me a great plan a couple of weeks ago. We were having apple pie and beer when he said: ,,I want to replace all advertising on Times Square with art.” Well, I asked him, what’s stopping you?

Sure, it’s a ridiculous idea. Too ambitious, not realistic at all. How’s a twenty-something from a small Dutch city going to take over New York’s most famous square? Yet that’s what I like about it. Because I think this project will show how our societies have changed. We’re a networked society and we’re gonna prove it.

Project description by Justus Bruns

At first, it was just Justus. But as soon as he was convinced to give it a go, six others from the BKB academy joined him (including me). The snowball started rolling (literally, it has been snowing for a couple of days now). We’ve built a website which Justus will present on Pecha Kucha Amsterdam (January 20th). The goal: to get as many artists on board as possible. So that we can witness the beauty of the network society.

If every artist starts to promote the idea within his or hers network, we’ll get an enormous group of people. And that means power, money, and quite possibly the realization of Justus’ idea. We’re going to show the world what the buzzword ‘crowdsourcing’ really stands for.

Sure, Justus Bruns can’t change Times Square on his own. But he can ignite a spark. He can be the first of thousands aiming for those huge billboards. Even though he hasn’t even seen the damn square. Stay tuned to see it happen. Better yet, hop on the bandwagon. Drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter if you’d like to participate. If you’re an artist, submit your work to our Flickr or Vimeo pools.

Let’s not just rock the blogosphere, let’s rock Times Square.

PS. For those who think ideas can be too unrealistic, I gladly refer to this talk by Timothy Ferris:

Some other posts you might be interested in:

• My five goals for 2010