City Hall Is About to Slap Advertising on Everything
Here’s how we’d spruce up the Central Library in City Hall’s new Advertising Age.
The Inquirer reports today that City Hall is soliciting bids to place advertising on city buildings and vehicles, with 12 “major players” in the ad industry responding so far.
The city’s request for proposals lists 58 of the 134 rec centers and 45 of 54 libraries, including the Central Library, as potential sites for advertising. The Municipal Services Building and the One Parkway building, both of which are next to LOVE Park and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, also are included.
The proposal delights Council President Darrell Clarke, who called for this sort of thing two years ago, and horrifies traditionalists. ““It’s very disheartening to live in a city that so little values its aesthetic treasures that it would sell them off,” one critic said.
On the other hand, wouldn’t it be cool if the Frank Rizzo statue at the Municipal Services Building with his arm extended to the future, carrying a sign for Tastykakes? It would be the most Philadelphia thing ever.
