Santa Gives More to Rich Kids Than Poor Kids

Santa Gives More to Rich Kids Than Poor Kids
Billboard (2005)

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” – George Orwell
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Part of my degree show at Glasgow School of Art, 2005.
Full details at: spellingmistakescostlives.com/santa/

Originally I was going to put up a billboard with Maiden Outdoor, advertising directly to both children and adults and telling them some unsettling truths about Santa Claus. (For more on my justification for this project click here.) I had the poster printed, (£130) and ready for posting. Then the day before it was to go up, I got a phone call from Maiden: Due to the press finding out (via the press release I had sent them,) and the fact it was such a “contentious” issue, the board was not going up, end of story.The newspapers thought the story had legs though. The guy at Maiden I had been organising it with, who had been really nice up until that point, now hated me. On the day the poster was meant to go up the papers ran the story, he rang & grimly told me to enjoy my 15 minutes of fame.

I rang around for a couple of weeks looking for another company with no luck. The last name on my list was Clear Channel. They’re the world’s largest owner of billboards and I assumed they wouldn’t like to step into something that had already generated ‘controversy’ in the press the first time around.Bizzarely though they said yes, were really lovely and even offered me a choice of sites. I didn’t push my luck by asking them if they were aware of the newspaper coverage. I was just glad to get my degree show back on track.