BANNED by CBS OUTDOOR, JC DECEAUX and CLEARCHANNEL
Photo Op is currently on show at The Imperial War Museum, Manchester in Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War exhibition.
The IWM chose it as the lead image for their exhibition campaign, to be posted on bus shelters and hoardings around Manchester. The corporations who own the advertising space, CBS Outdoor, ClearChannel and JCDecaux banned it.
CBS stated to the IWM that it would not run anything deemed to be “involving explosions” on public transport media, JC Decaux gave no reason but refused to reconsider. These three multinationals own all the public advertising space in Manchester and almost all the rest of the country (CBS own the licence to all advertising space in the London Underground). They arbitrate on what the public can see in the streets of our cities and in public space. They deem violent images okay so long as they are selling a product (see an advert currently up on the London Underground for Frederick Forsyth’s book KILL LIST the image is a drone flying out of a massive explosion with the strapline SEARCH.LOCATE.DESTROY. ).
