“On behalf of both of us, we would like to thank you again for your help with this event. Your generosity is going to seriously impact a lot of people’s lives in Haiti. Through ticket sales, the auction, bar, donations and merchandise sales, we were able to cut a check to the American Red Cross for $27,669.51.

Now that we have had time to catch up on sleep and let this sink in a bit, we have been completely taken aback by the generosity and willingness of the Seattle community with our efforts to help Haiti. Without the help of everyone involved, this would have never been able to happen.”

Cool.

Seattle Helping Haiti at the Moore Theatre

SEATTLE, WA – The goal is straightforward at least for posterGIANT owner Doug Cox; encourage community members to take it upon themselves to help reduce the city’s “visual blight” through some good ‘ole community pole cleaning on Sunday June 3, 2007. Everyone who participates in the clean up challenge is encouraged to take before and after photos of their efforts and submit them to: info@postergiant.net where they will be posted for all to see.

Seattle businesses and community members, particularly those in the music scene, are invited to select two or more utility, lamp or road sign poles in their neighborhood to de-poster, or join the crew at posterGIANT headquarters, in the basement of 1205 E. Pike Street at 10:00 AM, to clean up the Pike/Pine corridor. Volunteers should bring their own tools such as a crowbar, claw hammer and gloves. PosterGIANT will supply trash bags, waste disposal and a BYO B-B-Q afterwards.

For years it wasn’t even an issue. Seattle Municipal Code prohibited anyone from posting so much as a handbill, sign or poster to any utility pole, lamp pole, or traffic control device. Since the repeal of these policies in 2002, access and use of these free advertising venues has been, to say the least, competitive. The premium placed on the use of utility poles, lamp poles, and traffic control devices as guerrilla message boards in recent years has led to increased rivalry, finger pointing, and in one instance violence between the organizations that have made it their business to communicate via these free advertising spaces.

For those at posterGIANT the event seems to make perfect sense. As Cox puts it, “We do the most posting here on Capitol Hill so we have to be responsible to our community. We invite our competitors, our neighbors and anyone who cares about keeping this hard-won right to poster alive, to join us on June 3rd!”

Although this year’s cleaning is the first citywide effort; the crew at posterGIANT started the tradition on Nov. 19, 2005 when they volunteered their time and hit the streets with crowbars, claw hammers and gloves to take on a rather daunting task. At that point it looked as if no one had cleaned the city’s poles and traffic signs of their once informative clutter since the laws banning poster hanging were repealed in 2002. After removing posters as thick as a mattress, the posterGIANT crew tackled the task again on Dec. 10, 2005 and in April and May of 2006.

Cox remembers the public response was almost immediate, “People came out in droves. They stopped us constantly and thanked us, wanted to know who we were and what we were doing. One guy who works at the bank even brought us beer.” Cox also wants people to know the benefit of such work doesn’t lie solely in its aesthetic appeal. By stripping the poles of all outdated ad material it makes it easier for all to advertise their events.

Now in their third year of volunteer pole cleaning, posterGIANT invites all Seattle residents and businesses to join in by cleaning their part of the city and make this an annual event. For more information and photos of previous clean ups visit www.postergiant.net or contact their main office at (206) 850-0818.

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Founded in 2000, Seattle based posterGIANT is a street-level advertising company operating in 26 major markets nationwide. PosterGIANT specializes in ad creation and display using billboards, “renegade” posting, stencils, wall projections, door hangers, hand bill distribution, and in/outdoor posting. Working within the laws unique to each city, posterGIANT serves a variety of clients from the small independent band to major concert promoters, video game companies, political awareness groups and more.

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The response from the community was great. Quite a few passerby’s stopped to commend us and say “thank you”. Makes you feel all warm inside… To be perfectly honest, though: it was rough work and not necessarily how one would like to spend a Sunday morning/afternoon. But, then again, there was pizza and beer afterwards and, if nothing else, it got my lazy butt out of bed.