Go Flyer A Kite

Flyers were an effective means of communicating when you couldn’t afford advertising. Their use was for transient events that would be over in a month. A cheap D.I.Y. advertising campaign. Today, flyer’s have become an old medium exhausting our forests and polluting our rivers. The over production of cheap, chemically laden sheets of paper seems to be easily ignored by our city. The idea that the paper is “recycled” so it’s “alright” might not be the case. Some insiders have said the truth is demand is so high for recycled paper that paper companies put new trees through the process so they can certify it as “recycled”. The endless supply of paper that ends up on the street, or landfill only to dissolve those chemicals right back into the ground should be seen as decadent and wasteful.

The graphic design deluge of the 90’s led to an attitude that all paper should be the heaviest. Conveying  strength and solidity. Professional designers demanded thicker paper with more color, with better coatings. Print shops obliged their customers demands. Leaving them with a need to over sell and to have price breaks  that encourage waste. To make the over production of the most expensive flyers on the heaviest paper, with the most chemicals should be reconsidered.

Reflexively getting flyers should be reconsidered as a method of promoting shows and events. They are a source of permanent waste for short term events. Soon they will be considered as much of a waste as plastic bags. The days of flyers are numbered. How many numbers, I’m not too sure of but believe me, there’s a number.