M.I.T. takes over the city
by Lindsay Gibb

I can’t remember the last time I had as much fun wandering Toronto after dark. A friend and I were at Yonge and Eglinton when we came across a bunch of flyers that were taking over the neighbourhood. They caught my eye because they covered everything in site: newspaper boxes, garbage cans, bus shelters and the front of a store for lease.

Each flyer stated something different; some political, others more pop cultural, such as the ever prominent, “I feel embarrassed for Christina Aguilera.” Seeking them out, I felt like a kid collecting ALF cards again. With every few steps I stopped to see if I had struck gold with a new one or if I had hit a double.

The additional allure of these little sheets was the mystery of what they were advertising. Each one read “MIT City” at the bottom but only after finding their website did I discover that this was the name of a band trying to promote itself. One member, Mike Only, says their flyers definitely drew attention to the group.

“Our first impression was some people would be annoyed but they would just roll their eyes and walk on,” he says. Unfortunately this proved to be a bit naïve.After the flyers were up they heard from an angry store owner wanting to see them charged with vandalism; an agitated OMG Media wanting to take them to court; and media outlets who wrote unflattering articles about how the band wasted the taxpayers’ time and money.

Lindsay Gibb is a contributing editor to Spacing