An attention economy

The attention economy, originally uploaded by JamesB.

Too much noise. Secondary signs - the clock, 'the orange jacket' - become filters.  How simple would it be to create  a physical IA here that was navigable? What can offline learn from online?

And relatedly, how can you create a measure for the 'negative externalities' associated with excessive advertising to argue against urban spam?   There's a weight of anecdotal evidence but all that does is act as a cue for clients to want yet more "hard hitting" work (sigh).  There's market failure right there but you don't see a way for media standards bodies to intervene for the greater good and part of me would object if they did - as you'd lose a lot of creativity in [guerilla / ambient] media planning.