Photo: "Place your message here!" by blogTO Flickr pooler Gabi~

Now here's a tax that makes sense: The Beautiful City Billboard Fee, a tax that could raise at least six million dollars annually by charging a fee to third-party outdoor advertisers on city billboards. If approved, the revenue raised would be directed through the Toronto Arts Council and used to support a slew of public art initiates.

The proposal launched by the BCBF Alliance may be an ambitious one, but the logic behind it is quite simple: billboard advertisers should be held accountable to the community for their impact on public space. With the rise of illegal billboards in Toronto (over 500 have been confirmed by anti-billboard front man, Rami Tabello, of illegalsigns.ca), the need for serious action is upon us.

The Beautiful City Alliance is asking those who believe in the regulation of city billboards to sign and circulate the BCBF petition. Every signature counts!

It could be said that the art of advertising is the art of convincing people that they are not, in fact, being advertised to. This kind of savvy, ad exec trickery is a challenging feat indeed, but when it works, it really works!



Enter Toronto's Ogilvy & Mather, the ad agency responsible for the wildly popular viral videos from Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty. "Onslaught", the follow up video to "Evolution", has garnered over 200,000 views on Youtube since it first hit the web on Monday. Feeding the viral frenzy are people who may claim to have no interest at all in the Dove brand, but are compelled, for whatever reason, to pass on the video to a friend. I've received the video four times now. The general consensus: "It's a cool ad with a great message." Well done Ogilvy & Mather, you savvy ad execs, you!

Photo: "Speaker on a Hydrant" by blogTO Flickr pooler LT.

I realize that panel discussions aren't exactly the sexiest of events, but given all the hype surrounding Nuit Blanche, I had expected a packed auditorium last night at Art Aloud: the first of two lectures brought to you by the folks at Nuit Blanche. Not only was the panel free, it was also moderated by Christopher Hume himself, urban issues guru and columnist for the Toronto Star.

The panel was held at OCAD in an aditorium fit for 200. With just over 50 in attendance the night was more an intimate dialogue than a critical debate. Where were all the OCAD kids anyhow? Despite the lack of bums in seats there was an undeniable sense of support for both the artists on panel and Nuit Blance as a whole, made clear by a vocal and passionate audience.

For those who've recovered from last weekend's art crawl, it's time to move it on up to the east side tomorrow night for The Lab Sessions 2.0 - the second installment in a series of interactive art parties hosted and curated by Labspace Studio.