One of the things I had to get used to was the somewhat more insistent presence of direct advertising in my life. Not only do I get fliers stuffed in my mailbox, I also have them stuck on my door, to the tune of three or four a day sometimes. The point seems to be to put them where you cannot help to see them, and some flier-hangers go so far as to obstruct your keyhole or your doorknob.
But then again, so does everyone else in my apartment building. Once in a while, my apartment manager comes by and rips them all down, sweeps them out of the hallways, etc. In the beginning, I would dutifully clean my door each day, or sometimes twice a day. Some weeks back, I stopped bothering.
In the beginning, feeling this keenly as an invasion of my privacy, I decided to take steps to reclaim my own door. If everyone else had the right to stick things on my door, well, I certainly did too! I put up a welcome sign that used to hang on my office door at Portland State. In a miniature act of subversion, I used magnetic strips from the backs of some fliers to hold my sign to the door. Fortunately, the welcome sign is plastic, because the flier hangers have no compunction about sticking tape all over that, too.
Frankly, I think the autumn colors of my welcome sign blend nicely with the primary hues of pizza and chicken fliers.
5 comments:
That is an awesome picture of you! You're mad! Mad!!!!
I started reading this with a little bit of an attitude, like, "well this is a pretty obscure thing to complain about." But the photoevidence really drives your point home. The uniformity of the random mess on everyone's door is kind of interesting to think about, too...
It would be an interesting experiment if you took down each flier as it came and, you know, replaced it with a photo of you maniacally devouring the flier. It would make for a highly personalized entry door, and you would quickly become a celebrity among flier posters. I can totally see it. Although I'm predicting you might not want to dash headlong into that kind of notoriety. . .
Ah, the inimitable Sue. Well, notoriety I have no qualms about. It would only be the logistics of printing the photos that would slow me down. I like it, though.
I have considered putting a big sign on my door: "Art experiment in process: please do not clean off the fliers." (In Korean, of course.) I think it would be fun to see my door after a couple months of that. The landlords might see things differently, though.
Ah, how I miss the zaniness that is Heather! (Re: that fantastic photo.)
Everything alright in Heather-world? We haven't heard from you in a while...
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