Wraps Magazine
In a story related to yesterday’s post on the new NYC Transit window ads, it was noted that the semi-transparent film on which these ‘wrap ads’ are printed is manufactured by 3M for specifically that purpose.
Paul J. Fleuranges, a spokesman for New York City Transit, said the agency hoped that the film, called Scotchcal, would cut down on the frequency of scratchitti. The vinyl graphic film, made by 3M, is widely used to wrap buses, because a it allows a full image to be printed on the outside, while the little perforated holes allows people (in theory) to look outside.
As a technology, it solves a longstanding obstacle for advertisers: how to transform windows — the surfaces people look at the most — into surfaces for display. In this way, otherwise incompatible modes of perception are neatly synchronized with Scotchcal: from one side, up close, it preserves the transparency of the window, but from the other side, and farther away, an image is formed. One can look through or at the same surface.
As riders of public transit are finding, the power of this patent can hardly be overestimated. As the visual field becomes more and more cluttered and broken up with signs and solicitations, we can only expect attention-seeking strategies to become more sophisticated, if less subtle. The wrapped ad’s design, and the type of film on which they are printed, are already gaining in complexity. 3M now offers variations for acrylic, for glass, for short term and long term use, for backlit settings, for window displays, for buses and tractor trailers. A whole new industry is emerging to facilitate this expansion. Trade publications like Wraps Magazine (above) track industry developments and chart its growth, seeking new ways to wrap some overlooked object or site in ads and solicitations.
One can sense in these rapid developments the beginning of an almost metaphysical shift in the aspect of objects and the urban terrain they serve to multiply: advertising and the art of display have advanced one more step over the object and its materiality. Benjamin was perhaps more right than he could have possibly known when he said:
“Technology consigns the outer image of things to a long farewell, like banknotes that are bound to lose their value.” (3)
References
Benjamin, Walter. “Dream Kitsch: Gloss on Surrelism,” in Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 2, part 1, 1927-1930 (Walter Benjamin). Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2005.
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