Case Study: A Creative Spin on Spam

In academia, most would look at the problem on spam and try to find a metaphor for how the internet applies in a real world scenario. However, unfortunately a group of spammers have taken the idea of internet spamming and have applied it to the real world, making spam an even more invasive and now, a roadside issue.

According to reporter Kristina Davis, of the East Valley Tribune , thousands of picket signs are being staked in the ground with the same types of one-line messages that spammers promote. However, in this recent epidemic, the perpetrators are called “bandits,” not spammers.

In Mesa , Arizona , code compliance workers remove 300 to 400 of these signs, also known as street spam, a month. Like filters fight spam, a group of individuals who have named themselves “sharks” are fighting the bandits by ripping down the signs, or posting flyers that say “illegal” on the signs. A coalition called Citizens Against Ugly Street Spam, a Texas-based group, have made it a national campaign to stop the street spammers ( Davis, 2004).

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