In a second round of actions Ad Break, in Bristol, UK, has added ‘Skip Ad’ buttons to nearly 50 advertising sties around the city centre.
They say: “AdBreak Bristol made small interventions in at least 48 advertising spaces in Bristol (45 bus stop screens, and a few other places), with the addition of a ‘Skip Ad’ button.”
“The ‘buttons’ are a reminder that, unlike online (where we’ve tools to block ads, we can skip them, we can avoid the places where there are just too many) when in the real world the adverts are invading or space, and there’s no opt out.
We never invited these messages that are damaging to us and the planet into our city, and we want them gone.”
In a further action they took on a bigger digital screen:
“Paint was sprayed over a massive and unpopular advertising screen in the city centre. This screen
(advertised by JCDecaux as The Bristol Tower) has been targeted by others in the past, and admittedly this time didn’t go quite as planned (next time we’ll have more paint and more pressure), but given the history of public objections and direct actions its important to keep the pressure up.”