Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2013

Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2013

Ban the Banner
Axel Hammarskiöld Spendrup

When our phones first went wireless, then smart, the internet became a commodity we take for granted. We made billions of friends and watched cat videos with bleeding eyes until we saw internet access as a right rather than a privilege. When our children adapted to use touchscreens before books, we adapted to avoid online advertising. Swearing at every pop-up we encountered, we forgot that advertising keeps the internet free. It has supported advancements of every online technology except for the advertising model itself. Today, we are left naively abusing a dated system, because it is the only way we know how. We have to ask ourselves, do we want to be remembered as the generation whose greatest innovation was held back by ignorance, or do we want to go down in history as the pioneers who refused antiquated practices and stopped at nothing to push the boundaries of possibility? If we want to keep the internet free, we need to start thinking differently about how people interact with advertising. If we want to continue to progress, we must leverage the full potential of the internet and turn advertising into what it used to be. Ban the Banner is an initiative to discover and document unexplored opportunities, such as subliminal advertising, web habits, and embedded calls to action where action is already happening. Is is a motivation to move advertising from irritation to interaction. The solution starts with recognizing the problem, banning the banner, then starting anew.

Jonathan Abbo

Nick Abreu

Silao AJ Afano

Amel Afzal

Jeongkyun Ahn

Frederico Afrange de Andrade

Cynthia Bacall

Piper Black

Shravika Bothra

Zipporah Burman

John Bussiere

Noelle Campbell

Susana Castro

Nate Cepis

Yi-Shan Chang

Lisa Seoyeon Cho

Paul Jay Choe

Sara Chou

Saiq'a S. Chowdhury

Iee Deun Eden Chung

Caitlin Clingman

Evon Coleman

Rachel Cutler

James Czyz

Mae Decena

Stephanie De Jesús

Jonathan De La Rosa

Carlos De León

Kristie DeLouise

Dawa Dolma

Erica Efstratoudakis

Alexis Dawn Ely

Beril Esin

Sofia Falcon

Francisco Flores

Erik Freer

Ying Joyce Fu

Carina Giacomelli

Ermioni Giakou

Isabel Castillo Guijarro

Alex Hack

Shaobo Han

Paulina Ho

Lauren Hodges

Jenny Holt

Vicky Huang

Jess Hutchison

Joanna Izzo

Hasita Kamlesh

Elizabeth Kenney

SoJung Kim

Jihae Kim

Michelle H. Kim

MJ Minjung Kwon

Alleson Lai

Alfred Lam

Yejin Lee

Michael Leng

Christina Lu

Chris Lunney

Maketa Mabane

Amanda Maduri

Sara Maier

Tara Mann

Jenn Martins

Caroline Mathews

Andrew McCausland

Anna McKendrick

Bryan Meador

Melanie Mencarelli

Julio Montás

Jenni Mällinen

Burak Nehbit

My Nguyen

Jacqueline Oh

Melisa Ozkan

Boram Park

Caroline Partridge

Xing Hai Piao

Brenna Pladsen

Stephanie Porzio

Rocco Rada

Jay Ramirez

Joelle Riffle

Elizabeth Rodriguez

Yvonne Romano

Juan Carlos Santos Andrade

Ariel Scala-Perykasz

Shelly Seroussi

Betty Shang

Leslie Shapiro

Jennifer Haesoo Shim

Jeemin Shim

Amos Shin

Ben Shotwell

Robyn Silev

Nika Simovich

Axel Hammarskiöld Spendrup

Lesley Sakinah Steele

Naomi Sundberg

Britt Tapsall

Sabina Telagis

Daniel Bogre Udell

Azalea Vaseghi

Will Warner

Courtney Wells

Belinda Whiteman

Bryce Williams

Anita Wong

Chu-yi Wu

Giselle Nari Wynn

Katherine Yaksich

Kyungwon Yang

Emily Zhong

Michael Zoppo