Tuesday, May 21, 2013

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?










9 comments:

  1. So someone go fucking bomb it then! I have been there (the parking lot) and it seemed like it was nothing more than a billboard for who's next in the gallery show. That's just advertising, not street art. As for the ad, they got paid for that wall space I am sure. I'd bomb it! DRINK BEER, COME HERE SUGAR!

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  2. Pretenda-Street Art... you should copyright that phrase! Brillz!!!!

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  3. Galleries support artists until advertisements pay better

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  4. it's still better than most of the stuff Plastic Jesus does

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  5. LOL SHOULD BE CALLED GET A CLUE NOT A HINT!!! THAT SHIT IS HORRIBLE..PLEASE SOMEONE PUT SOMETHING OVER IT.. HEY WE ARE FUCK TARDS WHO HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO MARKET OUR BRAND...

    Passerby

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  6. The gallery made no money off the wall. Hint gives free water to artists while they are in the yard painting in the summer heat and also supplies water to several art shows in the city FREE OF CHARGE. Get your facts straight if you want to be a journalist. Hint supports artists.

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  7. if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, the gallery must be getting paid for this crap

    lame

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  8. The yard is owned by SportieLA not an art gallery. It's the Sportie LA parking lot.

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  9. I really just interpret this piece as commenting on the similarities between art and advertisement. A recognizable slogan and/or an image can have its artistic merits, but can also be profitable. Art is subjective, and if companies can use art in campaigns in order to get the artist's name out there, I see nothing wrong with it.

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