There are very few blank slates any more. Every available site is simply background for an ad. We have become so used to it that we accept that bus shelters offer some unusual thoughts—and images—, that clothing has its labels on the outside and that TV ads are less and less tasteful.
I will admit I was a bit startled the first time I walked into Port Authority bus terminal and found I was walking on advertising. Now I look forward to the changing messages.
I was recently in Penn Station for the first time since last spring. As I was leaving I was halted in my tracks. What was that? Quite simply, NesTEA has claimed the risers of the steps leading to 7th Avenue. Glimpsed from a distance it looked as if the travelers were climbing a billboard. Clever!
As a church we have learned that subway ads are effective. After all, we have to do something while we cling to our poles. The bus shelter ads appeal to the passing pedestrian as well as to the patient traveler inside. Handbags, totes, umbrellas (preferably when open), all sport logos or messages.
Then I thought of the guide in Corinth last spring who told us that when the prostitutes walked the streets in that ancient city, lore has it that on the soles of their sandals was the invitation: "Follow me." So perhaps advertising isn't so modern after all.
There are the ads for the unpronounceable medicines, chiefly starting with the letters X and Z, and the political ads that now crowd out all else. I recently read an analysis of the latter that included the remark that anything more than a minute in length was too long for the average viewer. Doesn't that say something about out attention spans.
In an idle moment I wondered how Jesus would have advertised his "business." "News at the Mount?" "Want a road adventure?" "Fish and facts for the taking?"
Try writing one as you wait in your next line. It's an interesting exercise. |