Submitted by John Stauber on
"This property for rent. That's what an increasing number of
strapped municipalities are proclaiming to Madison Avenue
as they make available for advertising, marketing and
promotional purposes an expanding range of public places -
whether zoos, parks and train stations, or museums, piers
and beaches. And while you still may not be able to fight City Hall, in some instances you can rent it for an event. ... 'We call it the city-for-sale phenomenon,' said Gary Ruskin, the executive director at Commercial Alert in Portland, Oregon, an organization dedicated to fighting what he terms ad creep. 'Every one of these is a victory of crass commercialism over local values. Places like parks are intended to be sanctuaries from the more noxious aspects of our commercial culture, refuges
from the hustle and bustle of marketing. Instead, they're now degraded into huckstering, up for bid to the corporations with the deepest pockets.' "
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