Bangalore: 

FREE SPACE? Advertisers would resort to nailing neatly printed metal plates on tree trunks to spread their message file PIC

Every morning when I take up the daily newspaper I subscribe to, various other print materials I don't subscribe to would slither out. They just attach themselves to the main paper like thorny clinging weed-seeds, which attach themselves to your pants if you walk through high grass. It is rather annoying to dispose of them when you realise they are there, clinging to your clothes.

But that is bio-dispersion, or nature's easy way of spreading a species around. Now small advertisers and pizza parlours have found that a similar tactic works for them, the newspaper insert which costs nothing. I don't know how much 'good publicity' it generates. Speaking for myself, it infuriates, slipping out before I can even get to the headlines. Trying to stop it, I drop my coffee cup with a start.

Outdoor parasites

We all recall Bangalore as the garden city with tree-lined roads. Now every road for miles around is adorned with gate boards advertising insurance, banking services and so on... They are attached to gates, and carry a near invisible sign NO PARKING, lost among the unpaid advertising messages. Usually, gate owners can't be bothered with removing them (they are firmly secured with thick wire).

But sometimes the gate owner resorts to revenge games like painting out the advertisers message and leaving only the NO PARKING message. Another kind of double piggybacking are the handbills and movie mini-posters which are stuck over the NO PARKING ad-boards on gates. Of course it is a time-honoured custom to stick these cheap messy posters on road-turning signs - making the town ugly and navigation impossible. Of course the new GPS-enabled mobile phones will help to locate destinations (though, frankly, I don't know exactly how.)

But getting back to the 'N.P'  signboards on every gate, it's even worse on tree trunks. For a while there used to be neatly printed metal plates, nailed to the tree trunk. But these were too easily removed as infuriated tree lovers detached them (and often sold them as scrap metal.) Now the cheapies have created disposable tree posters. Ink Jet printouts in polythene covers nailed to the tree trunks. One evening the neighbourhood kids saw me ripping off one of these.

Why are you spoiling that tree, uncle?' they chorused. I explained that I was not spoiling the tree, but saving it from vandalism. This gave them a new game to play. So, next day instead of playing catching, they were busy cleaning up the neighbourhood.

Advertising agents have a tough time. But they always find a way. Have you heard of such a thing as surrogate advertising? When promoting a product (like alcohol consumption) which is not permitted by law, you keep the brandprominent and camouflage the rest.

So one sees expensive multi-coloured ads for cologne, cocktail glasses, serviette sets and so on. Taking a cue from the signboards in parks, the tree parasites added a small admonition. 'By Order'. Only it doesn't say whose order.

And the camouflage commercial combat goes on.