[!vespa-heads-gang.jpg](http://canadiandesignresource.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/vespa-heads-gang.jpg)[!vespa-ad-fauxreel-3.jpg](http://canadiandesignresource.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/vespa-ad-fauxreel-3.jpg)[!antlerhead.jpg](http://canadiandesignresource.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/antlerhead.jpg) It amazes me, when you stop and take it all in, how much of our urban space has been decorated with the images of advertising. So much so that creative types are aggressively seeking new ways to innovate the medium and drive the messages of their employers into our heads. Vespa may have gotten into our heads most completely, literally ripping them off and replacing them with their iconic products. [Jon Currie from BlogTO writes, “The idea that we can exchange our faces and minds with a product is pretty indicative of our culture. We are defined by the products we wear, ride/drive and live in. Our goals revolve around getting that next product and upping our neighbour or fitting into the community of people who happen to own the same thing”.](http://www.blogto.com/city/2008/04/scooter_head_guerilla_marketing_gone_horribly_right/) The ads are also masked and hidden, with no clue to who/what may be behind them, appearing as street art and confusing the viewer into absorbing the campaign and the images of the client with little barrier. This ad event has been well documented [(Visit our friends at Spacing and read more)](http://spacing.ca/wire/2008/04/30/vespa-ads-not-cool), so I guess that it is a success but the tactics are pulling our culture onto a slippery slope. A decline where advertisers will use any tactic and any means to reach out to us, helping to shape our opinions and style, and polluting our visual landscape as they do so.