Saturday 17 October 2015

Ad-Farms- A new approach

Most of us would've observed heaps of big advertising hoardings while travelling from one place to other in our country. Majority of these advertisements happen to stick around roads and highways. 
They divert the attention of drivers, and the attention diversion quotient of these advertisements varies from minimal to drastic (depending upon the sobriety of content). This happens to be their first disadvantage in my view, as is obvious from presence of large number of road safety signages mentioning "savdhani hati durghatna ghati". Distraction to drivers is one of top 5 reasons of accidents on Indian roads. 
Second disadvantage is as significant as first one. Being an Architect I don't like them littered here and there as they are obstructing the view to built environment. The view to buildings, as attractive as it might be, needs to be unobstructed. Only then our conscious might ask us to improve upon the face of built environment. But that’s a separate topic, let’s stick to these ads.
Both of these disadvantages are good enough to seek alternatives, but what are the alternatives? 
Well, we could take a cue from standard human behavior. When humans seek a discipline in any practice, the first thing they do is to organize. Our basic approach regarding locating these ads needs to change from unorganized to organized one.Rather than placing these ads at random hazardous places on roadside buildings, we should seek spaces uniquely organized for Ads.  
This is where this idea of “Ad-Farms” comes into picture. Despite our concerns regarding rapid urbanization, it’s not stopping or even slowing. Farmlands are fast converting into parkings, parks & compounds of housing societies, converting natural into manmade. It’s very hard to even think of retaining any farm spaces in urban areas.
Through Ad-Farms, we could seek to change that. These advertisement farms could very well be our traditional mango or orange orchards or fields, occupied with corporate advertisement hoardings. They could very well act as public spaces, where people could understand these ads without any hazards. Where natural and manmade could complement each other.
These Ad-Farms could be source of revenue owners, both through advertisements, and if properly designed then through public visiting. On the other hand these Ad-farms would be a tiny share of social responsibility for corporates. The Ad guys might even think of innovative ways of displaying advertisements if they are sure that people would stand look and appreciate it, like on TV. These Ad-farms definitely seem a better option than the existing one.
Off course drastically changing the way things are normally done is a very tough job, as human nature resists change. Success of this concept too would depend on a lot of factors, like favorable government policies, corporate awareness, desire of organic approach in people. But it’s definitely worth a try. 

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