Owning the Streets (en BcnWeek)

(published in BCNWeek Magazine, Barcelona, January 2007)

You wake up this morning tired, overwhelmed; today is a day as boring as any another. You are tired, weary of opening the mailbox every day and finding it full of advertising pamphlets, weary of being forced to swallow fifteen minutes of ads if you want to see the end of the Simpsons. You are also tired of the loads of spam emails trying to sell you Viagra or Cialis, when, finally, a text message sounds in your mobile phone. What you expect is a Christmas wish from Grandma, but when you open it you discover that this time, like every time, the objective of the SMS is to advertise a new car that you could never afford. Then you go to the gym, as usual. On the way there, you have been assaulted by at least twenty or thirty new ads in the subway, on bus stops, in leaflets, or wherever. And what do you discover when you arrive at the gym? The fitness room walls have been covered with Vitalinea posters. The worst part is you know your life will be this way forever. Forever.

These days, we have forgotten that in democratic countries the power is not in the hands of the government but in citizens’. Because of the hurriedness of our way of life, we forget that public spaces are not places to pass through but to live in. We forget that the streets belong to us, not to institutions or companies. Is it legitimate for companies to buy public space and use it to advertise themselves? Is it legitimate for local government to sell it for this purpose without our permission? Companies make profits of thousands of euros thanks to it, and governments receive a piece of the cake. And what do citizens receive? Hundreds of ads every day.

You’re walking down the street towards your office thinking that you can’t handle even one more advertising message. Everything seems normal for a moment, but, rounding the corner, you suddenly see a naked couple walking towards a shop. Are they exhibitionists? Are they crazy? Are they protesting against some injustice? No, not at all; they are going to Desigual, where today the slogan is “arrive naked and leave dressed”. More and more naked people continue to cross in front of your amazed smile. Unbelievably, you have been hit by a new advertising message. And now, on top of it all, you realize you liked it.

A new way to create cheaper and original advertising is breaking through in the Spanish market. It is called ambient marketing. We could define this marketing strategy as a new way of advertising products and services in real time by becoming part of the customers’ lives. Such marketing campaigns attempt to be clever, interactive, original and likeable by surprising the customer and fighting against the glut of normal advertisements. They ask for client participation and produce a feeling of well-being in the participants. In short, the point is to transform the consumer into a communicator of the advertising message. Most of the time, the campaigns use public space, and are becoming more and more intrusive.

A famous example of Spanish ambient marketing campaigns was created by Match.com, who placed a Sleeping Beauty in a crystal ballot box in the middle of the street to communicate that the easiest way to find love is to use its website. Another one, from RyanAir, promised free tickets to everybody who went to Plaça Catalunya with a protest sign against Iberia. Though they originally expected 200 people, the campaign was so successful that they got more than 300 hundred attendees.

Even NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) are following this new trend, creating powerful campaigns with a serious social agenda. Intermon Oxfam developed a campaign for International Water Day in which they attached drinking straws to Barcelona’s culverts with the message, “Would you drink this water? Millions of people do not have another option.”

For “El Cuaderno de Sindu,” another of its campaigns, several notebooks were placed in high-traffic areas of Barcelona. In those notebooks, a girl called Sindu told her story and the state of the water in the African countries via drawings. The only thing asked of the person who found the notebook was that she read the story, keep a drawing, and leave the notebook in another place so someone else could find it.

You don’t have to be part of an international organization to do it. Remember, ambient marketing is very cheap and can be practised by local associations. JEF-Catalunya (Young European Federalists) has also led battles of this type. They carried out a street action during the last European elections along with their partner JEF-Greece. A bus of Greek youngsters arrived in Barcelona distributing Greek yogurts to the citizens. The aim was to motivate people to vote in the European Constitution referendum (whether for or against wasn’t so important). The labels of the yogurts featured a recipe for good democracy. The first ingredient was, of course, voting. When asked why they did it, the organisation replied, “Because to remain seated at home doing nothing no sirve para nada. Because if only one person goes to vote thanks to our efforts, it was worth the trouble.”

Months later, when the conflicts in Bielorussia took place, three crazy members of this organization woke up one day at 6:30 a.m. to hang posters on statues in Barcelona protesting the lack freedom of expression in Byelorussia. The posters said, “Dona veu to the poble of Bielorussia” (Give voice to the Byelorussian population). The same thing was happening at that precise moment in other cities in Scotland, Sweden, Germany, Macedonia and many other European countries.

Are you curious? You too can practice guerrilla marketing, here and now.

The unfair distribution of wealth in the world seems indecent to you, but it’s more indecent that nobody does anything. What can you do? You can carry a pen in your pocket and, on each five Euro note that passes through your hands, write the following sentence: “Millions of people live on less than this amount every day.” How many can you write on in a day? What about in a year? You won’t change the world, but at least you may make some people think. And maybe other people will decide to follow your example.

I hate when women are treated as sexual objects. Everywhere on the streets you see pictures of half-naked skinny women advertising everything: ice cream, cars, lingerie –though that could be justified (with a lack of imagination.) But the rest...? I hate this perpetuation of the mujer-objeto stereotype. My personal plan is to take pictures of those ads and design stickers in pullover and trouser shapes to affix to the ads with the message, "It’s winter and it’s freezing…even for me."

Guerrilla marketing is also known as Extreme Marketing or Feet-on-the-street. And you can use it without any outside help, and it’s free. Abandon your weariness, desahógate, and protest against what you don’t like. Expressions like, “I cannot do anything alone,” or, “Nobody listens to me,” are over. I promise, I’ve seen it with my eyes. And history can give you many other examples.

If you don’t believe me, ask Guillermo Mendia. This Barcelonan guerrillero starts up alternative campaigns whenever the Ajuntament of Barcelona initiates a campaign of “indiscriminate collection,” i.e., every time the Ajuntament needs cash and decides to start fining everyone. Guillermo began his personal battles against local government when they fined him for parking his motorbike in the same place he’s parked it every day for three years. He’s not the only one this has happened to, but he is the only one that’s doing something about it. For two weeks after the event, he placed posters where he got fined that said, “Més places de moto, i menys multes,” warning others not to park there and asking for more moto parking. He once also placed posters where his scooter was stolen from in the Barri Gòtic, asking for more surveillance from the mossos d’escuadra. The local media covered the action, and other people have since followed his example by complaining against unfair penalties and motorbike thieves.

The most recent ambient marketing in Barcelona happened a couple of days ago on Via Laietana. On a Thursday morning, a man fed up with paying 50% of his salary to cover his mortgage woke up and decided to do something. This mystery citizen picked up a spray can and painted a white square in the road with “6,000€” written inside. This is the average price per square metre of real estate in Spain, and 1000€ is the average salary. Too much to pay for so little space.

Now that you’ve gotten the idea, it’s time to catch the attention of others. Get them writing or generating actions in tune with yours to produce the greatest impact. You may not have money, but you have imagination. There are loads of injustices out there, so pick one to be your cause. The street is yours. Use it.