How To Block Ads Online and Off

by Tracksuit CEO

Recently my daughter and I have discovered all the classic cartoons on YouTube and because they’re short we get to watch the whole thing. We watch them when she’s requesting “a show”, which could mean a cartoon, movie or tv show. The good thing about the cartoons is that they are short and every parent feels some amount of guilt for letting their child watch any amount of television, right? It’s also something both of us enjoy watching, it’s new and crazy for her and nostalgic and comforting for TrackSuit Dad.

There is one particular Daffy Duck cartoon in which Eastern City is being terrorized by a Moustache Bandit (Daffy obviously) — his saying:

“Science is some folks’ calling; others pilot a ship. My mission in life, stated simply, is: a moustache on every lip!”

Daffy paints handlebar moustaches on ads billboards and eventually Porky Pig the policeman. (Is this Warner Bros. tribute to Duchamp?) The idea of adorning everything in sight with a handlebar mustache captured my imagination then, as it does now. And just yesterday I read an article in Good magazine (TrackSuit’s new favorite) about a real life Moustache Bandit named Jason Eppink who does what he calls:

“an unauthorized, ongoing video-art performance collaboration with the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, Clear Channel Communications, and its selected artists.”

And what he basically does is cover those above-ground subway television displays with a sheet of foam board cubes. This transforms those intrusive television ads into beautiful light/video installations. He calls his invention the pixelator; he’s basically a human ad-blocker (which is a very cool firefox extension btw). Check the Pixelator out in action:

If he were a NY artist I wonder what the Moustache Bandit would call his work, “a value-added public works initiative”?

Okay, where’s my Sharpie? Sorry corporate America, one of your ads is getting a fu-man today!

TrackSuit CEO will be at SXSW Interactive March 9 at 11:30

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