Shanghai adver-barge

Today in my series of photos from my travels: an adver-barge sailing down the Yangtze Huang Pu river with a giant illuminated billboard on it, steaming past enormous white-elephant skyscrapers (so tall and heavy that they're actually sinking in places!), skinned with illuminated advertising. Link

[#1 posted by lia , December 17, 2007 10:18 PM]

If you watched the trashy awesomeness that is America's Next Top Model, you would've seen this three weeks ago! They used it on there to announce the winner of a big prize, which was pretty neat. I guess it's a good thing most of NYC does not have good views of the East and Hudson rivers or they'd have been full of these things a long time ago.

[#2 posted by Doran , December 17, 2007 10:29 PM]

Oh god. As anti-capitalist as I pretend to be, I really think this is pretty awesome.

[#3 posted by JIMWICh , December 17, 2007 10:33 PM]

It's Bladerunneriffic!

[#4 posted by GregC , December 17, 2007 10:44 PM]

Cory - that is the Huang Pu River - which cuts Shanghai in half - you are looking at not the Yangtze.

That thing is much more impressive in person - its huge - I want one in my living room. :)

And yest #3 - the view of Lu Jia Zui at night from the Puxi side of the river is pretty damn Blade Runneresque - more so if you could see a bit more right in the picture. I so want to hack the Aurora building and play space invaders on it. :)

[#5 posted by devophill , December 18, 2007 12:02 AM]

"you would've seen this three weeks ago!" Check the date on the picture.

[#6 posted by Burns! , December 18, 2007 12:19 AM]

Saw this when I was in Shanghai last month. Impressive, but it pales in comparison to the 30-story video screen on the Aurora building. Wow.

[#7 posted by spikewerx , December 18, 2007 1:05 AM]

I was in Shanghai about a month or so ago, advertising and copycat product overload! I also had a chance to take the "tourist tunnel" under the Bund, which i took a full video of on Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZzCNdgOeIo, it costs ten times more than just using the tube, but is a hell of a lot more entertaining!

[#8 posted by NealAppeal , December 18, 2007 1:15 AM]

Jimwich says blade runner, but if you want to get more specific, I'd look to the title sequence of the movie "Ghost In The Shell". Also look there if you want to see awesomeness.

[#9 posted by Adamus , December 18, 2007 1:32 AM]

When I was in Shanghai in February of this year I took a picture of the barge from the Oriental pearl tower: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwinyd/410794838

[#10 posted by mirrormonkey , December 18, 2007 4:19 AM]

I guess the awesomeness of Ghost in the Shell is in the eye of the otaku.

[#11 posted by dougrogers , December 18, 2007 6:26 AM]

DORAN, the last thing Shanghai is, is anti-capitalist :-)

I loved the giant Coke bottle in that immense pedestrian mall.

[#12 posted by grow-a-brain , December 18, 2007 8:19 AM]

I was there too -
http://growabrain.typepad.com/photos/china_november_2006/advertising_boat_1.html

[#13 posted by ill lich , December 18, 2007 10:38 AM]

Back in about 1989 I predicted (usually to anyone who would listen to my drunken ramblings) that eventually we would have commercialization of every available space-- I singled out the idea of "rolling billboards" and "TV ads DURING the shows" both of which have come to pass. The billboard-barge is a variation on the rolling billboards that are carted around the city by tractor-trailers (I wish I'd thought of the "above urinal ads" I now see).

Where does it stop?

Kudos to the state of New Hampshire for strictly regulating all billboards. It's still a scenic drive up rts. 93 and 89.

[#14 posted by Cpt. Tim , December 18, 2007 11:05 AM]

hate this now, or accept that one day we'll be projecting adverts on the moon with giant lasers.

[#15 posted by oliverlaumann , December 18, 2007 12:20 PM]

Here's a closeup of the barge I took in March 2007. It certainly doesn't look very impressive in daylight...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oliverlaumann/886296912/

(By the way, you might also like this comical image from the Urban Planning Exhibition in Shanghai depicting the concept "foreign tourist":

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oliverlaumann/885459421/

)

[#16 posted by Jonathan Stampf , December 18, 2007 8:23 PM]

What of the entire side of a building at the top right of the photo, about 10 times the surface area of the barge! That is cool. I wonder if it's animated. Please be animated.

[#17 posted by dougrogers , December 20, 2007 1:45 PM]

Jonathan, yes, it's animated.