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Banksy on Advertising
“People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are “The Advertisers” and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.
Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.”
~ BanksyDamnit Banksy I love you so much it’s insane.
I maintain that Banksy is the most important artist working today, with regards to message and awareness of the public outside of the incestuous circle jerk art market.
Hah it’s so sad that the people who decide what’s cool to like have decided that his day is over because I still rather enjoy finding his stuff; first I learned of him was in 2003 when I was unhappy and my flatmate Neko took me on a tour of London to look for all the Banksy Rat stencils he could find.
You need to come to Bristol sometime then, his stuff’s all over the place. Or at least there’s a really cool Google maps thing which shows you where different bits of street art are, including his stuff. I’ll have to find it again.
Posted on January 27, 2012 via Elle Dark with 8,707 notes
Source: elledark
