A Plea For Graffiti

File under: What The Hell Is This Crap? Gaudy placards with posters for upcoming high-concept studio comedies have been popping up on the sides of buildings in areas with heavy foot traffic. The photo shows an office building Westwood Village (this same building has 2 additional placards tacked onto it–one more “Deuce 2″ and “40YOV” awaits you in either direction around the corner) and have been spotted in a few locations along Sunset as well, just east of the Strip bend. The posters are mounted in tacky faux-chrome plastic frames that are crudely bolted onto the buildings.

While King Kong-sized ads on highrises are a Hollywood tradition that are easily ignored–unless being mocked, especially when they are for duds that die on opening weekend (Herbie) or shows that no one is watching (The Comeback [which took a while, but has finally hit its stride])–this particular form of advertising is particularly reprehensible for it’s eye-level confrontation factor and semi-permanent building defacing. It’s pure and simple visual polution, turing the city into a bad magazine, creating the exact kind of clutter of which L.A. needs no more. No doubt Adbusters would be all over these.

Is this part of the redirection of studio marketing dollars away from print ads that Nikki Finke mentioned in the Weekly? Going heavier on the billboards? Standing in one spot at the intersection of Fairfax and Wilshire you can see no less than 3 billboards for “40YOV.” A passing bus also had the irritating sunburst graphic with Steve Carrell. This carpetbombing ad campaign only firms up an indifferent resolution to pass on this one-note-joke 84-minute SNL sketch.

Perhaps our local graffiti talent will take on these fresh canvases and jam their unwanted selling. Note: They are covered with a matte plexiglass that probably resists ink, so paint might be the way to go. The Westwood location is at a “T” intersection of Broxton and Le Conte Ave. One could probably do the job at this location with a single lookout at the corner of Gayley and Le Conte (Map here). Maybe Buff Monster or Neck Face can answer the call to beautify these hideous ads.