Eye Magazine

The big advertising displays of Piccadilly Circus have long been dominated by the big brands: Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Samsung, etc.

For a few brief moments today, National Poetry Day, for five minutes every hour (from 9am to 2pm) a single horizontal panel (above) was devoted to visual interpretations of Charles Causley’s poem I Am The Song.

The young artists and film-makers struggled a bit with the narrow format, which you could see as a kind of turbo-widescreen or a glorified Web banner, but it was a nice change from the relentless waves of advertising, a small gift to passers-by and sharp-eyed passengers on the tops of buses.

Next time, it woud be good to see one of the larger panel repurposed for cultural purposes: a temporary autonomous zone within the ocean of brandspace.

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