No logo

Here's a bit of old news, but I've been meaning to post this for quite some time. And driving out to a local electronics chain in the burbs Saturday night reinforced the interest and appropriateness as I gawked at the new LED billboards illuminating the sprawling conduits of the shopping mall mystique that is Germantown.

Billboards became illegal in Brazil beginning in 2007. There are great photo documentaries if you Google the story where you can see the old Sãu Paulo that looked like a cereal isle in the grocery store and the new São Paulo with the festive colored walls, architecturally blanketed hillsides and tree lines surrounding the city. The No Logo Flickr set mentioned here provides an artistically sculptural interpretation of the now empty billboard frames throughout the city.

And of course my pinko sensibilities are being caressed. Take a look. From Ping Magazine, Japan. Yes, the irony, that this story comes from the capital of in-your-face digital/LED/you-name-it/as-big-as-it-can-get advertising.

Photo: Tony de Marco