Jordan Seiler of Public Ad Campaign is a one man powerhouse challenging the ubiquitous presence of outdoor advertisements. For a bit of context on Jordan’s relationship with the city’s advertisers, here’s an interesting short story: two years ago, Jordan took over three billboards in Philadelphia during an exhibition of his in the city for a project he called “Let me handle this”. Rather than leave it at that, he asked the ad companies to allow the works to remain for the duration of his show and explained that if any one of the works were to be taken down, he would put two up in New York City. All three pieces were removed and Jordan, a man of his word, put up 6 new takeovers in New York, posing the same threat against the New York ad companies so that if any of these takeovers were to be removed two would go up in Philadelphia. The show ended before any of those 6 were taken down, though Seiler hoped that they would be removed so he could continue to put up work. The moral of the story is that Jordan is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to advertisements in public space. You can read more about the “Let me handle this” project here.
In more recent news, Jordan revisited a phone booth which he had taken over twice before: The first time he hit it with his signature weave pattern. When that got taken down, he took the space over again with a photo of that last takeover. Recently, Jordan took over the ad space again with a photo of the last takeover, and thus leaving a photo of a photo of an ad disruption. Or more appropriately, an ad disruption within an ad disruption within an ad disruption. The work here is probably one of my favorite ad takeovers Jordan has done to date, and I’d say in my top 5 favorites of all time.
We can see through Jordan’s documentation that the phone booth is getting a bit beat up over time but the leaning of the phone booth gives the image a sort of Twilight Zone effect. It’s like an echo of a single act. I’d love to see Jordan keep going with this.
Photos by Jordan Seiler