Drink Water Not Sugar - Support Artists Not Advertising

M&F has said it before and we will say it again, advertising poses the biggest threat to street art. Bigger than the police and bigger than the buffman.

Now check out this hilarious pretenda-street art piece on Melrose.

It is located at the so-called Barracuda parking lot, or it was called that until last year when Barracuda closed up shop next door.  For years, and even since before M&F started covering the streets of Melrose and Fairfax, this particular lot has consistently been arguably the most active spot in Los Angeles.  Anyone who follows M&F knows this spot, and its relevance to the scene.

Well, a short while ago a 'street art gallery' set up shop on the other side, and began to try curating the art.  The good part is that the art still does change somewhat frequently, but the bad part is that is that the old Barracuda lot has lost its authentic street flavor.

How far has it fallen?  Well, here is a piece of pretenda-street art masquerading as real art.  It is not art.  This is an advertisement for Hint Flavored Water.  And the fact that this advertisement was dressed up as street art and invited inside this 'curated' lot amongst the regular street art murals, well, this is a prime  example of how insidious product marketing is, and how easily a gallery will bend over backwards to whore the genre for a dollar.

Indeed, drink water not suger and support artists not advertisements.

But, like the Chod piece next to it says, 'none of this is real' anyway.  Right?