Last but not least: Out of tombstone
Outdoor advertising magnate Jean-Claude Decaux died on May 27. The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebbdo paid tribute to him with a scathing cartoon.
No one stands for out-of-home more than Jean-Claude Decaux. In 1964, he founded JCDecaux, currently the world's largest outdoor advertising company, which today holds 30 percent of APG SGA. With the idea of providing municipalities with bus shelters free of charge and maintaining them in return for exclusive marketing rights, the company secured a quasi-monopoly in public spaces. Using the same principle, the company still maintains toilet facilities, bottle banks and illuminated city map boards today.
As is well known, however, advertising in public spaces does not only have friends. Unlike all other forms of advertising, it cannot be circumvented; there is a compulsion to consume, so to speak. Even advertising legends like David Ogilvy criticized that advertising does not integrate itself into the public space, but blocks the view of it. What is a blessing for some (cf. Last but not least from Tuesday), is a thorn in the side of others. It is therefore not surprising that Decaux's life's work is not only applauded and admired, but also criticized.
"Is he dirtying his grave like he did our lives?" asks Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Laurent "Riss" Sourisseau - plastering the tombstone with macabre advertisements such as "Two Funerals for the Price of One" or "Action on the Coffins" (source: Charlie Hebdo, No. 1245, June 1, 2016). Incidentally, cartoonist Sourisseau survived the attack on the Charlie Hebdo editorial office in January 2015, playing dead after being shot. (hae)
