A tree grows from the windows on Electric Avenue, Brixton

[ViolentPanda]

You might not like that sort of thing now, but perhaps in 100 years people will look back on the technological frivolousness of this era with nostalgia.

Perhaps. It's unlikely, though. I suspect that they'll look back on our wastefulness and frivoloity with disgust. After all, the resources we're burning up to make the latest model of iPhone/tablet/computer are really their "inheritance".

I imagine there were plenty of Brixtonites bitching about the Bovril sign the day it went up

Which might be a decent point if it meant anything, but given the greater separation between commercial and residential back then, it probably doesn't.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Some people might argue that for much of the new demographic of Brixton, iPhones are essential items

Some people might be a bit "challenged".

 

[ViolentPanda]

It'll all be fields again in 100 years.

Of flowers and/or crops, or of nuke-fused glass?

 

[ViolentPanda]

Marketing turns everything into shite. Apart from Bovril.

Which, according to many people of my acquaintance (although not me!), is already shite.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I don't literally mean that specific advert, but modern adverts of that type in general which everyone here seems to despise

Advertising can be great - a source of amusement and/or information and/or art, for that matter - and it's obvious why that site was chosen, because it's a prime location for catching the eye of all the commuter traffic. For me it's the sheer garishness of that particular ad, alongside the fact that advertising is coming to predominate the urban environment in a way that it didn't 100, or 50 or even 20 years ago.

 

[Onket]

Of flowers and/or crops, or of nuke-fused glass?

Yes.

 

[SpamMisery]

Where has anyone said that they despise all 'modern adverts of that type in general'? I don't have a strong opinion about billboards in general, but I have an opinion about them when they've turned an iconic building in the centre of town into a tacky advertising hoarding.

Pretty sure I didn't say 'all' but I'll accept a correction from 'everyone' to 'many'. Jeesh

Is the iPhone add permanent? Looks like those temporary ones used to cover scaffolding - I assumed as part of the buildings restoration. Actually I didn't even notice it this morning

 

[leanderman]

Pretty sure I didn't say 'all' but I'll accept a correction from 'everyone' to 'many'. Jeesh

Is the iPhone add permanent? Looks like those temporary ones used to cover scaffolding - I assumed as part of the buildings restoration. Actually I didn't even notice it this morning

I've spotted it only once. And it replaced an ad for something else.

The main thing is that the building is being brought back into use.

 

[tim]

I think there was more of a naivety to advertising back when those painted on bricks went up. Not like the cynical psychological hooks that ad men use now.

I think there might have ben a little concern about this issue even in the 19th century

 

[colacubes]

I've spotted it only once. And it replaced and ad for something else.

The main thing is that the building is being brought back into use.

Last week was a bacardi advert. The actual hoarding with the adverts has only been up 2 weeks.

Re the work it's started but very very slowly. They originally got permission a few years back and I suspect they've only just started working on it so they don't lose that permission as it's coming up to 3 years.

 

[editor]

Last week was a bacardi advert. The actual hoarding with the adverts has only been up 2 weeks.

I suspect that the building will be adorned with huge adverts for many, many months to come.

 

[colacubes]

I suspect that the building will be adorned with huge adverts for many, many months to come.

Truesay. But the only pro is that at least they're not doing what was done about 8 years ago and propping up a massive illegal hoarding through the open windows meaning that the building is in such a currently shitty state internally that it's nearly falling down.

 

[Lorina]

I believe I was born there. Not sure about the window with the tree growing out of it, but our flat had the windows next to it. I lived there on Electric Avenue from 1946 until about 1956.

 

[teuchter]

Good to see recently that the building which is the subject of this thread has now been done up and is no longer gradually collapsing, by the way.