Well would you look at this bombers: ad art directors have yet again co-opted your steez (Is that how you say it, young people?), this time to sell fucking aspirin. The Bucharest agency: Graffiti BBDO. The Creative Director’s name? Richard Tagger. Read more »
Gangstas! Tired of the street life? Handy with an aerosol can (fake graffiti ads are the shit now)? Willing to hike up your pants a tad (You can keep the tats, just tell the account execs/clients that they’re ironic.)? Well, BBDO Düsseldorf wants you to join their set. Eh, that gang sign looks like it’s biting the Bloods’ a bit. Maybe you Crips should check a Berlin agency instead. Anyway, if you’re thinking of joining this ad gruppe, here’s an erudite little discussion about the differences between German and American street gangs. It seems, most badass Deutschlanders don’t carry guns, but “if you come to germany talkin big you get the shit slapped out not all of us need gunz we still know how to fight with our hands guns are for pussys…” No word if any skinheads currently roam their halls. (Note to local NYC Bloods & Crips: I do not endorse this ad and its mocking of your culture in any way whatsoever. Peace.) |Image: AdOfDaMonth|
Mega ad agency BBDO (West) just did an anti-graffiti project, pro-bono, to support the San Francisco Mayor’s graffiti abatement campaign.
Marketing wise, the ads are way to unrealistic and heavy handed to really make any impact. Equating interior private space to outdoor public space is comparing apples to orange juice and too obnoxious of a starting point for debate. Not to mention, the graffiti in the house actually looks kind of interesting, a cool mix of and high and low culture. This could totally be in an avant garde beach house in West Hampton.
But the real comedy is what does this mean for BBDO’s Romanian division, Graffiti/BBDO. Yes that’s their actual name. And graffiti pretty much means the same thing in Romania as it does in San Francisco.
Equally ironic, is the high probability that some of the art directors and even more of the designers over there in BBDO West are surely messing with spraypaint, markers or printing posters (for wheatpasting) with the company’s fiery printers when their not designing power point decks or mocking up logo scapes for clients.
So moral of the story is, its ok to use graffiti for street cred, to give an agency some edge, or to brand a European division, but otherwise its a scourge.
BBDO West Launches Anti-Graffiti, Zoo Pro-Bono Work Adrants
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