OOH industry must play an active part in city beautification, says art groups

Art is vital to the beautification of a city. Groups like New Delhi Rising and Delhi Street Art have taken pioneering steps to beautify different parts of the capital city, turning drab locations into art displays. More recently, parts of the Moolchand Flyover in south Delhi were given a makeover with colourful art. Similar initiatives have been taken in places like Shankar Market, Lodi Garden, Khan Market, Sujaan Singh Park, Connaught Place, Janakpuri, Nehru Place, Khidki Village, and places in Faridabad, Dwarka and Gurgaon. Other cities that have seen similar initiatives are Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Pune, Agra, Varanasi, Rishikesh, and Bhopal.

Nakul B of New Delhi Rising and Yogesh Saini of Delhi Street Art believe that businesses like OOH advertising could play a catalytic role in such beautification drives. Commenting on the current state of affairs, Nakul told Media4Growth that the advertising is way too focused on branding and fails to make an intellectual connect with the community. “I strongly think there has to be a balance between profitability and encouragement of arts.”

“Right now it is all one sided. The utter sadness lies in self-funding such initiatives. And even if you garner the resources, it is a challenge to engage the authorities who shy away from any kind of social responsibility for art,” he added.

“A site might cost lakhs or crores but when it comes to putting up art and beautifying the city there is absolutely no efforts seen from media owners,” said Nakul.

Yogesh felt that the change would come about sooner than late. He referred to initiatives in New York and Paris where the artists went about repurposing the ads

He said, “MTV did join hands with us and we did the “DUNK THE JUNK” campaign in different colleges in six cities. It was a good initiative but had a very limited eyeball engagement. It would be good if other brands take on things like these where more youth can get involved.”

Yogesh added: “Our cities don’t have enough colours and creativity in the open spaces. We somehow have lost our aesthetic touch when it comes to public spaces in a big way. We need to retain some degree of civic sense and aesthetic sense.”

Interestingly, he pointed out that Hand painted movie posters on hoardings would add to the city art. Interactive Digital Outdoor Media like the ones in Hong Kong and Singapore if done creatively can definitely add to the city outdoor advertising.

Nakul observed that outdoor Advertising is all about celebrities. He doesn’t think that adds to beautification of city in any way.

“Art adds life to any dull grey space, and the more practical point of view is that it discourages people from ruining that space, so rather than throwing garbage or dumping stuff out there people would want to take selfies with the artwork,” said Nakul.