PHIL MAXWELL

All over the world advertisers seek out the spaces we walk past to plaster advertisements emploring us to buy junk food and stuff we don’t need. This is a multi billion pound global industry which ensures it is impossible to travel along a major route in our cities without being reminded of what the ad men think we need so they and their clients can make more money.

Posters advertising gambling, Bethnal Green Road 2010

I was astonished to learn about the young man Xiao Zheng, from China who sold his kidney so he could buy an iPad and an apple phone. The advertising campaign around these products saturated TV, the internet as well as the street.

Woman with mobile phone, Brick Lane 2010

Advertising in New York, 2005

Are we reaching a time when we define ourselves by what we own? In contrast to the corporate advertising  we see everywhere the collage of cinema posters below is a breath of fresh air.

Man on bike. Chennai, India 1991