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Brush Up Business with Paint, Paste, Paper & Push – Tribeca, NY

Oct 11th, 2009
by fadingad.
© Sandro & Gianna

© Gianna Narduzzo & Sandro Pavesio

Previously posted on Fading Ad Campaign website.

Taken in 1998 © Frank H. Jump

Taken in 1998 © Frank H. Jump

To the Editor: NY Times –

The sign uncovered at Reade Street and West Broadway in downtown New York City and described in Paul Goldberger’s May 14 appraisal of “Signs of Lost Times” may have “confounded city historians for years,” but it was clear to me the moment I saw it. “Brush Up Business With Paint, Paste, Paper, Push” is an advertisement for outdoor advertising itself — an ad for ads, if you will. In other (more modern) words: “Improve your business with outdoor billboards” (which are painted, pasted and papered). Why ‘Push’? For alliterative purposes only. “Push” means “sell.” Which is what outdoor advertising has been doing ever since, and very well at that. ROBERT REAUME President, Outdoor Advertising Association of Canada Toronto, May 19, 1994

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Posted in: Fading Ad Campaign, Ghost signs, ghost ads & other phantoms, Guest Feature, Photography.

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3 Comments

  1. Eva says:
    October 11, 2009 at 10:32 pm

    It amazed me that today’s American readers will need these explanations, not only I do — as a foreigner.

    1. fadingad says:
      October 12, 2009 at 1:03 am

      Isn’t it Eva?

  2. Brush Up Business Revisited – West Broadway, TriBeCa – Fading Ad Blog says:
    July 29, 2013 at 2:48 am

    […] Previously posted on October 11, 2009 […]