Graffiti started out as a marketing campaign. It was a marketing campaign for the artist to show that they were there to claim their fame. As time progressed street and graffiti art became a little more elaborate. It became more creative, imaginative, and meaningful. Still at the beginning it was all just about getting your name out there; until it evolved and pieces started to pop up more image base driven than word or text driven. Then just like the reoccurring names gaining notoriety, the images were gaining a sort of power from their repeated use. Marketing is at the very essence of urban art and both ways, text or image base, are very effective ways to market oneself. However urban art uses this aspect of itself to pass on beauty and important messages.
Ever since I was very young, graffiti wasn't just an underground urban art form. It had been encompassed a little by the commercial world. I would see the imagery on many things that surrounded me at the time, such as skateboards, toys, clothes, music, and television. This imagery was prevalent everywhere I looked, whether this art influence was created by an actual graffiti artist or just a mock creation imitating the lettering or figures commonly used. Gradually the look and feel of this whole movement and the influence that it has over other things has changed and continues to do so to this day, as it is still very prevalent in the commercial mainstream. It moved from elaborate, colorful text driven imagery to the more simplistic, rustic stencil imagery that it is at today.
This style of art is now and has been used, for awhile now, by corporations and other big business in their advertisements. There has been a bit of a marriage between the two, big business and urban art, ever since the youth culture started to latch onto the street and graffiti art movement some time ago. To be honest, graffiti and street art are perfect for the advertising gig. So as urban art progresses and prevails, the businesses moved away from just using the mock imagery or artists for creations on billboards, signs, and TV commercials. They actually have started to pick up the tools of the artists themselves and bring it all back to its roots. Certain businesses are advertising by going out and creating street and graffiti art for their logos or supporting their products or company, aka “guerrilla advertising”. This is especially attractive for companies because guerrilla advertising attracts a new audience and is much cheaper than conventional advertising; and if these companies get caught with vandalism there isn't a big punishment for them, only a small fee that is much cheaper than paying for an advertisement (Delana, n.d.).
This new way to market is moderately attractive to street artists because they get paid to put up street art as long as it advertises the product in some way (Delana, n.d.). The real problem is that advertisements already litter the visual environment with a scourge of images trying to turn us all into drone consumers. Urban art was the only thing in the environment that was created individually with true integrity for the purpose of beauty and community message. Not to mention that urban art was usually always more intriguing to look at when compared to those bland advertisements. The lines between these two visual imagery avenues are blurring now that they are mixing; soon cities will be overrun by images that seem like street art, but in fact are just pounding brands into your head trying to sell you something. Urban art is the innocent amidst the already huge cluster of visual marketing that surrounds us everywhere we turn our eyes trying to force things upon us. Why ruin that one visual break that artists give from the consuming overload?
Delana. (n.d.). Guerrilla art versus guerrilla advertising: What’s the difference? Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://weburbanist.com/2008/07/03/guerrilla-art-versus-guerrilla-advertising-whats-the-difference/.
Cross Walk Mr. Clean (2008). Retreived May 5, 2011 from the World Wide Web: http://www.adsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/guerilla-marketing-example1.jpg.
Jeep Parking (2007). Retrieved May 5, 2011 from the World Wide Web: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Ou9L6rRmaUM4JRepx65D9i_o3FqoaltndNT-IhHi7TnPhTIR7qBCK7LFjP5SGYu3_OOseg6ibu88PFmMbtrqULB2pLHofFimPm0LRh-Ja3mbKOAk6vS9B28ZK4Zjw8kz3Xt5Us7Rb68/s1600/jeep-parking-space-ad.jpg.
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