Corporate Graffiti ‘Battle’…
I stumbled upon this imagery on the internet’s newest ‘fun’ cancer: Digg. The post is about an advertising campaign in Santa Monica, CA, by two automotive giants; Audi and BMW. Audi launched a new billboard ad campaign that announced “Your move, BMW.” As a result, BMW decided to place their response ads right next to Audi’s that simply say “Checkmate”. Peep:
This ad, although cool, motivated me to say a little something about how I feel about advertising.
This is great, as far as advertising goes, but my immediate reaction was, “Wow, corporate graffiti.” People seem to love this kind of thing, although, to me, it’s just another example of how those with the money get to force their imagery in the public’s faces everyday. I’m sure that’s an offensive statement to a lot of people out there, but I know I’m not alone in thinking that seeing billboards with graffiti (or streetart as some people have relabled it,trying to beautify the name) would be much healthier. On the one side you have money factories (corporations) force feeding our eyeballs with “consume this! consume this!” images, and the other is street kids forcing their idea of art into our public spaces. I’m sure it’s my early punk rock days that sway me to thinking that of the two, the ‘illegal’ one is much safer and friendlier overall. Artwork done by members of my community vs. propoganda paid for by some faceless entity from who knows where.
It gets a little depressing when you stop to think about all the ways that money is spent to try to convince us that we need to spend our money on stuff…just so that you have ‘stuff’. I’m not sayin that I don’t love having a fancy home theater or a plush bed, but I don’t think that the massive amount of money wasted on convincing people to waste money is healthy. Maybe if we (society in general) weren’t constantly bombarted with all this advertising hype, from the minute we open our eyes to the world, we could spend more time doing things that really matter. Instead of working more and harder to buy things that don’t.
…just my opinion.
peace,
zOnk.oNe
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4 Comments so far
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Grow up. This ad was created by a small start-up in SM and they went to the Dealer not the other way around. The only difference is the agency got paid and the kid on the street doesn’t. The impulse is the same. And the money doesn’t change that. The artist who created this has a BFA from RISD (she worked her way through and the family is ass deep in debt) but I know from personal experience created plenty of street art before she had to feed herself.
Thanks for the response Sandra. Maybe try to take your emotional connection out of this particular circumstance and read it again to understand my viewpoint.
Either way…as I stated, it’s just my opinion. And I do give credit to your ‘street art’ creating friend (hahaha).
I see your point, but in this circumstance I think more people are humored by the creativity of the ad and the humor of the two businesses battling each other, than the inconvenience of having to see an advertisement. If it weren’t intriguing, this blog wouldn’t be up and no one would anyone be even conversating about this ad. Advertisements are the consequence of capitalism and a casualty of the wealth and innovation corporations bring to our country. Like it or not, our country does depend on consumerism. I, myself, dont feel overly violated by advertisements on the streets or television— only by ones that are forced in my mail and email box.
Word…thanks for the response James.