This is the last planter!!

It is was installed on the opposite side of the intersection as the planter in yesterdays update. This intersection happens to be Sherbourne and Carlton (Carlton is College after Yonge)

Interestingly, not only have the planters been removed, but the two empty flyer boxes, shown yesterday, on the opposite side of the intersection have also been removed! Completely gone!

As for the two barely used boxes featured in todays update, they have been packed CHOCK-A-BLOCK FULL of flyers, as well as contact information for how to obtain advertising in the offered publications! They have had a makeover! A full-sized vinyl sticker has been put onto the sides of the “Dream Box” to re-brand it as the “Immigration News”. I guess they’ve realized that having two boxes on both sides of the intersection was too much. Perhaps they’ve also realized that a full, functional box, is the best deterrent to a box full of garbage, and is necessary if they expect anyone to ever stop and look inside. What they’ve yet to realize is that the writing is on the wall for these sort of flyers. Or should I say, the writing is online.

This is not the only sort of box to have an image makeover. I’ve noticed some boxes have had a big vinyl sticker put onto the back of the insert slip (The spot where you’d tuck a single copy of the publication for display) This sticker implies that the box was recently FULL of publications, and they’ve been going like hotcakes! You are TOO LATE to get a print copy, but you’re welcome to check out their popular content online!

This is one swift piece of marketing. In one stroke it deftly turns an empty and forlorn box -a box that signifies failure and irrelevance- into an empty box that is now an ad that implies that the emptiness is a signifier of success! It says: “Hey, we have good, heavily-desired content!” And it also smoothly directs you to their online content without seeming desperate. The message is: “Well, we can’t help it if our publication is wildly popular! But not to worry, there’s lots to go around online!”

Pretty slick, if disingenuous. It sure beats: “We’re dying. We’re dying slowly and we don’t know why or what we can do to stop it. As physical proof, here is yet another rotting corpse of a flyer box, littered at your feet. But hey, were trying our hand at this “ONLINE” thing -though we don’t really understand it- so if you’d be good enough to check out our “WEB-SITE”, you’d be doing us a favor!”

I can’t hold it against them for trying this little bit of marketing cleverness, they are doing their level best to survive, but I very much don’t like how these stickers callously cover up years of artists stickers. That spot is the preferred location!

Of course, they probably see that as a side benefit! All of this cleaning-up and re-imaging in one fell swoop of a simple sticker! HOW CLEVER.

Writing now at the end of this experiment, It’s hard for me to say for sure whether or not I’ve helped inspire all of these recent reactions. The project has gotten a great deal of coverage, and it may have been an impetuous for these companies to realize that they need to change, but then again, it may all just be a coincidence. There are certainly lots of other signs out there that these companies need to change! In recap, Of all 8 flower boxes installed, at this time of writing: All have been removed. Of all the flyer boxes that they were installed in, only 2 have had flyers placed in them, 1 has been removed (along with the one beside it), all the dream boxes have been re-branded, and all the rest stand as they stood before, giving no sign or evidence of the colour and life that so recently and briefly inhabited them.

I’ve gotta admit, I really expected that they would last allot longer.

Well, wanna see what kinda results you’ll get in YOUR TOWN?!

Make your own!

I’ve been asked to post a “How-To”. Making these is really very straightforward, but I’ve posted some pics of my design that I sketched up in my blackbook, and I’ll talk a little bit about it here to get you on the right track.

As you can see, It took me about 3 sheets of plywood to build 8 planters. I would NOT follow my design exactly however. Just use them as a departure point. All of it will change depending on the sizes of the flyer boxes in your area. That’s your first step: go and measure their interiors. What is their height, depth, and width? Is the door hinged right at the base, or is it several inches up? Will you need to accommodate that? Does the box have a swing arm and will you have to allow for its width? Is there anything else you’ll have to allow for (Like the metal separating bar in the three-tiered style boxes)

Tips! -Never build exactly to size. Give yourself a little bit of wiggle room. These boxes are sometimes pretty beat up, and irregular in shape. Don’t make it so tight that a two millimeter difference will prevent you from installing the box once you’re on site. Trust me, IT SUCKS.

Also, some boxes have a spring-bottom, so that they can be loaded up with a great many papers and rise up to dispense them as they are removed, and the spring is unweighted. Like a napkin dispenser at a fast food restaurant. This sort of box will probably be unsuitable for a planter, unless you can devise a good way to support it’s weight, such as drilling in from the sides.

Speaking of which, a word about drilling, screwing, gluing and such. I’ve gotten a lot of suggestions to up the planters permanence by using one of these techniques. I’ve decided not to, for two reasons.

ONE: it ups the seriousness from littering or some form of minor mischief to “Criminal Damage” of the box.

TWO: My experience with guerrilla gardening in the past, and the shared experience of my fellow guerrilla gardeners, has lead me to believe that there really is such a thing as “Flower Power”. (Thank a hippie, I guess.) And this “Flower Power” is best wielded by an open heart, not a clenched fist. There is maybe something more striking, more beautiful, more sympathy-gaining, and in the end, more powerful in a gentle, vulnerable act of defiance, than in a “powerful”, protected one. (Tiananmen Square V.S. The Los Angeles Riots of 1992)

That said, everybody must make their own choices, and live with them, and if I were to be more aggressive In installing these guerrilla planters, I would take a power drill and some washers with me and fire several tamper proof screws into both sides and the back of the flyerbox- right through the thin metal, and anchored into the wood of the planter.

But hey, I’m not recommending it.