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Graffiti vs. Advertising


turnstyle

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Two takes:

 

What do you feel the correlations are between advertising and graffiti? Is graff advertising for yourself? sociopolitically, are you of the opinion that if advertisers can forcefeed you imagery, you have the same right? is graff for you a form of public response to corporate control? equal opportunity media infiltration?

 

and

 

following that...do any of you wreck ads -because- they're ads and you're like "fuck that"? or are billboards etc just more space to grab?

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I have often thought about the irgh of corporations to force feed colorful ads down my throat and try and convince me I am in need of the latest technologically advanced whatever...I came to the realiztion its about MONEY. bottom line advertisers pay lots of money to advertise and writers get over for free. Graffiti is certainly like advertising especially if its executed well. What's up with a few of the big corporations using Graff to sell their products? Didn't reebok use writers in campaigns?

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Originally posted by crisis

i know i crush ads just because they're ads....i believe i have as much right to express myself in public space as any corporate entity...

i'm so fucking sick of this commercial culture of oppulence

 

Ive actually just decided to go with kaws and use ad's and mass marketing ploys put out by companys to my advantage, just take them home, alter them and put them out again .

Ive done this with quite few of the promotional movie posters at the metro stops, the stay up for monthes at a time, get alot of attention and no one questions me when im "getting up."

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Originally posted by turnstyle

if advertisers can forcefeed you imagery, you have the same right

 

damn straight i have that right. Im offernded by the countless billboards, and millions of other corporate "sponsored" things I see every day....it makes me sick. If im forced to look at their bull-shit, then they're gonna be forced to look at mine.

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graffiti--> people force you to see what they want and steal the space to do it.

 

advertisement--> steal peoples lives (exploit them.) Then use the lives to buy the space then force people to see what they want.

 

ads sell you stuff that will kill you.

 

ads are what make materialism go round which is the reason so many people are unhappy.

 

graffiti is good.

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An excellent thread idea...

 

A rebuttal and rebellion against advertising is one of my main drives for doing graffiti. While this isn;t the only reason to write (and I respect writers who think not for one second about the correlation between tagging and advertising), I find advertisment defacement very rewarding. Advertising is NOT freedom of speech, because only the rich can advertise. Did you know that a group of people created an anti-Mcdonald's ad, but no networks would allow them to buy ad time on their stations because McDonald's threatened to take away their ads (and the many dollars that they pay for them) if the anti-ad went on.

Some people call using advertising design and ad defacement to alter the message "Subvertisment". Read Kalle Lasn's book Culture Jam and find out more about how American culture is just one big ad to make you feel cool while taking your money... or don't read it because you can't afford it with all your car payments (why did I buy this new SUV anyways?)

Advertisment defacement that incorporates the design or concept of the ad into it is more along the lines of protest or political graffiti (which many graf bombers fight hard to not be associated with). Kaws is a great example of advertisement improvement. (Sorry for the name drop, but this is an appropriate situation, right?)

Here is a fun way to improve billboards and public ads. Make a stencil that simply says "SUCKS". Then spray it up after the product name. The Gap sucks? It says so right on that billboard so it must be so. It is simple, relatively easy, funny, and uses the money the advertiser has spent on design and ad space against them in just a second.

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Re: An excellent thread idea...

 

Originally posted by Graf Orlok

Advertising is NOT freedom of speech, because only the rich can advertise

 

Right on. I definately believe that if advertisers can forcefeed us imagery, we can do it to. It doesn't matter if people in general don't like graffiti, and dont mind advertising, because people in general don't know anything. The fact that graffiti is too individualistic (rather then conformity promoting, like ads) seems to be the real reason it's illegal.

 

Although it has nothing to do with advertising, I've also pondered the angle "what the fuck are people doing thinking they have the right to build these fucking cities and "own" these plots of land?" to justify graffiti. Our society totally fucking changes the earth, steals land, and fucks with nature, then gets pissed off when someone comes and writes on their shit. This doesnt make graffiti "right" in the truest sense, (I guess it's kind of like going over someone) but it does make everyone against it hypocritical.

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Re: An excellent thread idea...

 

Originally posted by Graf Orlok

Read Kalle Lasn's book Culture Jam and find out more about how American culture is just one big ad to make you feel cool while taking your money..

 

Dude, i finished that book a month or so ago, and oh my god!.....it really shifts the way you think about things, huh? One of the best books I've ever read.

I cant say this about too many things, but that book definetly changed the way I live my life.

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Guest Fabo 2

Graf is about expression, which is the base of all art forms.

Graf can also be considered a trade, that a peice can be judged on it's quality by various technical aspects, eg. how well it's painted, the skill required to execute such a finished product, ect.

Advertising, on the other hand, is about using our fears and conflicts to sell said stock (or product, in layman's terms). The two are completely different. A writer does not advertise himself, in the sameway that a bilboard doesn't express itself. People who think graf is akin to advertising aren't worthy to call themselves writers.

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Its too late for me to contemplate the philosphies behind graffiti vs. advertising... but i think the subject does in some way justify writing on billboards or anywhere else you see an advert... because they are putting up there advert on it and you so the same... they dont own it nor do you so whats the difference?

 

i'm sure someone will think of some but thats my point of view

 

peace-:D

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Guest pock167

actually i agree with kaws .....but i also lately i have been noticing buses driving down the streets with giant top to bottoms advertisments... which the moment i see it i think this is a giant piece..that these corporate guys slammed on the sides of a bus ... and where do u think they got that idea from... us the graf artist ... i also caught some euro trainz doing the same thing... so i guess like always we inovate the ideas and these bastards just go ahead and do as they please with it .... or is it a crime when were not paying for that space?... but its ok for the big industrial society to go ahead and just once again profit from what we have started, and created and put the art form that we slap on walls and on public transportation a crime ....im kinda sick to my stomache with the whole thing just blowing some hot air ...:crazy:

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i read ad busters that mag is great....i also see every wall or empty space as a space that needs beautification....i'll do everything in my power to do anything more then a tag because to me that is the lowest for of graff....even if it's just a hollow bomb to make something look better i'm happy with it....but that's if it's in a place where i have enuff time....tags will do fine in high traffic areas.......ads are just corporations trying to contaminate you mind....graff is a way to fight the big corporations....kill everything....although i do have limits...i won't touch churches or peoples houses...somethings just aren't meant to be fuct with.:dazed:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Graffiti is advertising and it isn't. Indirectly it's automatically advertising...you for your service of writing graffiti. However, it offtimes isn't for commercial gain. That's what makes graffiti interesting, it's a [monetarily] gainless and nonviolent crime. You don't really gain anything tangibly valuable. The only thing you can hope for is to be noticed or to make someone think differently about their surroundings. But corporations however use graffiti they pay for (advertisements) [sometimes they don't pay for it and end up paying for it: i.e. IBM] to make a profit off of the innocents they have hurt with the production of their products.

 

Long live the culture jam.

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  • 5 years later...

graffiti vs. progression/descent

 

so yeah, this was a dead thread i found, but i didn't want to start a new one. there is already some good on conversation on here, but i figured i'd throw something into it as well.

 

i figure if people can call shit out, it would be good for others to see who's ripping shit off. it's also fun to call out some shit just for fun. like if colgate did a toothpaste, and used a handstyle or something --that shit should be posted. if you see an article/blog about the positive/negative use of graffiti in advertisting, legal walls, commissioned murals, etc. --post it. seeing that this is about discussion, as well --voice your opinion.

 

so i'll start this shit:

 

mike giant rip off by billabong:

 

billabong.jpg

 

other rip offs, on giant's blog, at the end of the blog.

 

http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=515&Itemid=63

 

http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=493&Itemid=63

 

articles and blogs

 

http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/axing_corporate.html

 

http://www.bandt.com.au/news/71/0c010071.asp

 

http://www.graffiti.org/faq/esposito.html

 

http://www.answers.com/topic/culture-jamming

 

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060116-5988.html

 

this image has been edited (pixels on label) by the owner. he didn't want to promote the company in his blog.

 

softdrink_01.jpg

pi5send3_f.jpg

 

this shit is fucking funny, someone vamped a monitor.

 

367610885_be542fcf40_b.jpg

 

this campaign was put out by addidass. they posted white billboards, with some legal graffiti zone text, and then went back and pasted the advertisement over whatever work was on the billboard.

 

GraffitiCampaigns_adidas_060327.jpg

 

ad-041a.jpg

 

i always thought these things were stencils:

 

gameboy.jpg

VACANTLOTS.JPEG

coke1.jpg

 

ok i'm done.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

the bottom line is that, like most everything in america, it comes down to money.

 

if public space isn't kept clean, then why would a corporation pay thousands of dollars to advertise on a piece of public property that they can do so on for free?

 

all of this is bigger than most of you understand. the business of selling is big business, and big business runs most of american culture in every way, shape and form.

 

in order to ensure that the public space corporations are advertising on maintain their perceived value, any imagery that is in the public view needs to be tightly regulated at all levels.

 

in short, public space is big business. if corporate america loses contorl over public space, they are in a very direct manner threatening their big business endeavours.

 

hence the buff.

 

:p

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very good thread.

i remember when nike came out with there spree of different edition posters fro the air force sneakers in the early to mid 90s, it was a promtion for all graff artists. all they did was take photos of streets with tags all over it with a nike swoosh advertised on it. It boosted the shit outta alotta writers fame in NY who were street bombing back then.. can any one post or find a pic of those posters... NY heads know what I am talking about.

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