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BUILDHOLLYWOOD collaborated with artist Trackie McLeod on a campaign that questions the way negative behaviours in men are learned and reinforced
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising agency, BUILDHOLLYWOOD, has released an in-depth interview with Glaswegian artist, Trackie McLeod, following their collaboration on an impactful billboard campaign.
The campaign, which was launched across a range of BUILDHOOLLYWOOD’s London billboards in May, features the slogan: “Boys will be… what we teach them to be.”
The message is designed to look like the display of an early mobile phone, complete with pixelated text, a green background, and defunct battery and signal graphics.
The campaign was released amid a national conversation about the effect of media, culture, and modern online discourse on the attitudes of teenage boys, which came predominantly in reaction to the release of the TV series, Adolescence.
Adolescence centres on a 13-year-old schoolboy who is arrested after the murder of a girl in his school and delves into the impact of what has been dubbed the “manosphere”, a collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism.
Speaking about the design of his OOH campaign in an interview article released by BUILDHOLLYWOOD last week (June 28th), Mcleod says: “It’s styled like a Nokia 3310 – that was my first phone, and probably yours too.
“I wanted it to feel nostalgic, but also really direct. The phrase came from a TED Talk I saw and it’s always stayed with me. It felt important to make a bold statement about masculinity, especially given how extreme things have become with figures like Andrew Tate and the way young boys are being influenced online.”
The campaign was launched to promote ‘Fruit II’, a solo art show by McLeod which ran from May 22nd to June 11th at The Bomb Factory’s Holborn Gallery in London.
The show aimed to reflect elements of British working-class culture and humour inspired by McLeod’s upbringing in Glasgow, as well as McLeod’s struggles growing up queer in that environment.
Pieces included sections of a Nissan Micra wrapped with a ‘Burberry’ pattern, as well as a wide-format printed still from The Wizard of Oz emblazoned with the caption: ‘Away to Magaluf with the lads.’
Speaking about Fruit II, McLeod says: “It’s about growing up queer in Glasgow, and the kind of shame that came with that – the performances, the silence, the things you did to fit in.
“I’ve tried to capture those unspoken rites of passage – the uniforms, the rituals – but also to take the piss out of them, because that’s how I process it. I want people to feel the heaviness if they need to, but also to laugh and to see themselves in it.”
In the interview with BUILDHOLLYWOOD, McLeod stresses that his working-class status has created significant barriers during his career, often more than his queerness. He says: “If anything, queerness is the bit that does get represented. But class? That’s the real barrier.
“It means saying yes to everything. It means making the work that sells while trying to find a home for the stuff that doesn’t. Paying for a studio. Figuring it all out yourself. I don’t say that like “poor me” – I’ve chosen this path, and I’ve worked hard. But it’s a reality.”
Summarising his point, McLeod continues: “If you don’t come from money, you spend a huge chunk of your time just trying to access funding, and that’s before you even get to make the work. The art world still feels pretty closed off. I don’t know how we bring it down.”
