News from Amsterdam


To the front page

11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man

6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

 

2008 Archive

2007 Archive

2006 Archive

2005 Archive

 

 

 

 

Uninspired ideas on advertising in the city

31 December 2006 – Advertising is increasingly dominating the city, says the Amsterdam Centre for Architecture (ARCAM). An exhibition intends to stimulate thinking about this issue, albeit unsuccessfully. An advertising project at the Sandberg Institute did evoke a modest response.

The ARCAM has invited nine advertising agencies to present their ideas on advertising in the city. The results are not really striking. There has to be room for daring initiative, but at the same time ugly advertising must be pushed back – that is about it.

FHV BBDO suggests that companies sponsor flats. An illustration shows flats looking like huge abri advertising signs. “Flats become Empire Statement Buildings: do you go for the Audi Flat? The Nike Building? Or perhaps the Douwe Egberts Building? Brands are becoming more human and people are becoming brands. That is what advertising is doing to the city. But does the city dare to do this with advertising?”

The presentations of the other advertising agencies are hardly more inspired.

The ARCAM has calculated that if a trajectory ten times the length of the Leidsestraat would be covered by advertising during the summer months, and this would be repeated ten years in a row, the proceedings would cover the deficit of the North/South metro line. What this information is supposed to mean to us remains unclear.

Elsewhere too, attempts are made to start a discussion about advertising in the city. The Sandberg Institute, part of the Rietveld Art Academy, decided to sell its façade to advertisers. In its own opinion, this resulted in a ‘spectacular work of art’.

If the intention was to provoke a response, then it was successful. Action group Beeldbraak threw paint bombs at the building. “We want to change the façade into a public canvas, a Gesamtkunstwerk in the true sense of the word, on which the entire Amsterdam population can express itself during the coming days”, the activists said in a press release.

More than a week later, nothing has been added to Beeldbraak’s paint bombs, but the façade has not been cleaned up either. Perhaps the Sandberg did not want to respond forcedly to criticism, but of course it is also possible that the institute is closed for the holidays. In any case, the telephone is not answered.

On the street, a posh lady says she finds the advertising on the building rather original. She had not noticed Beeldbraak’s paint blots yet.

More: ARCAM, Sandberg, video of the Beeldbraak action (in Dutch)

 

Want to receive News from Amsterdam? Click here

 

This is the old website. Please find new content here