08.09.12
Symbolic unpleasantness under attack
Get off the street. Get a job. You’re making a mess. You are under arrest for annoying corporate businesspeople.
That’s the common message for anyone expressing legitimate dissent. It’s how you get around free speech when the message is writ large, as it apparently was in Vegas with hijacked billboards.
Billboards there, protesting Wall St. and the collapsed economy, were adorned by mannequins made to look like someone hung himself from a stanchion, one entitled “Dying for Work.”
Prize quote, from a wire story:
Clear Channel Outdoor, which owns another sign that was affected, said they pulled the display immediately and plan to work with law enforcement to punish whoever is responsible.
“We condemn the destructive behavior against one of our billboards because it is illegal and punishes our advertisers,” Clear Channel Outdoor spokesman Jim Cullinan said in a statement.
Someone punishes our advertisers, so the down on their luck but very inventive perpetrators must be punished. No visible symbolic unpleasantness allowed during rush hour.