PRESS RELEASE

  TALK BACK: THE BUBBLE PROJECT

June, 2006

It’s rare that a book captures a cultural phenomenon as it is taking place. Talk Back does just that. The brainchild of designer Ji Lee, Talk Back showcases the best of Lee’s Bubble Project. Lee printed 30,000 Bubble stickers to place on top of ads all over New York in order to convert the corporate monologue into a true public dialogue. The Bubble Project has organically grown into a movement that spans the globe, as the public becomes increasingly fed-up with the pervasiveness of ads in every nook and cranny of daily life.

 
 Lee’s approach to the project is simple; as he walks the city, whenever he sees an ad ripe for   commentary, he puts up a Bubble. A day or two later, with camera in hand, he returns to the ads   and most of the time the Bubbles are filled-in, often with words funny enough to make you laugh   out loud, or smart enough to really leave you thinking. Lee has collected hundreds of filled-in   Bubbles worthy of sharing with the world.
 Lee also penned a manifesto and started a website, thebubbleproject.com, which was selected as   a Yahoo! Pick on October 13, 2005. The site became a quick sensation, receiving over 50,000   visitors in just one day, which caused a crash that required a bandwidth upgrade. Over half a   million visitors have visited the site in the past five months. Lee and the Bubble Project have been   covered in media outlets the world over, from feature articles in Vice, Creative Review, Giant   Robot, The Guardian in the UK (“Bizarre and trenchant commentary on life and consumerism.”),   The Vancouver Sun (“Political Street Theater: Bubble Project allows public to write their own   commercial messages.”) and the New York Daily News (“More entertaining than the ads   themselves. Just plain funny.”), to TV appearances on G4 TV’s Attack of the Show, TVE (Televisi   ón Español) News and NY 1 Morning News. Stories have also appeared in China’ s Lemon   Magazine, Italy’s Max Magazine, Germany’s Der Spiegel and other publications in Brazil, Finland   and Switzerland. The Bubble Project is truly global.

 Talk Back showcases the best of the Bubble Project with page after page of colorful photographs   of Bubbled ads. Broken up into thematic chapters like “Social Commentary,” “Sex and Drugs,”   Media and Fashion” and “Humor,” Talk Back is sure to a ppeal to all readers because we are all   subject to this onslaught of advertising. Talk Back even includes pages of Bubble stickers so   readers can experience the phenomenon first-hand.

 Talk Back voices the public’s frustration with advertising and replies to its absurdity. Lee supplies   the tools for people to reclaim public space and make sure that their voices are heard. And most   importantly, it’s lots of fun. Talk Back provides a look at some of the best examples of these   efforts and paves the way for future Bubblers to TALK BACK!

Talk Back
Ji Lee
$14.99
128 pages
Illustrated in color throughout
ISBN 0-9762245-7-7
June 2006