Advertising A Work Of Art

Between 12-25 August 2013, 22,000 outdoor advertisements on billboards and bus-stops were replaced with reproductions of popular artwork in the UK. How’s that for an outdoor gallery?

It’s literally “Art Everywhere”. The 2-week project had advertisers donating over £3 million worth of outdoor advertising space to be temporarily replaced with artwork. It was great to see giant media owners such as JCDecaux, Clear Channel, Primesight and CBS Outdoor UK get involved in this creative project.

Forty-seven popular pieces of art were selected by the public from a list created by the Tate Gallery and the Art Fund. The general public also crowd-funded over £35,000 to make this happen.

Richard Reed, co-founder of beverage company Innocent Drinks created this project, telling The Guardian that he had “no agenda other than to flood our streets with art and celebrate the creative talents and legacy of the UK.”

Outdoor advertising will continue to have a monumental effect on us, and this mini-burst of culture really brightened our days. There was even a downloadable Blippar app that sent information about each art piece on your smartphone. How’s that for a 6-sheet?