Sony / Tats Cru / Graffitti As Advertising

[harm]

My cousin wrote an article that ran in this past Sunday's Toronto Star... just wondering what people's thoughts on this are, be it from the perspective of a writer or general public. Here's the article:

(oh and by the way PIGS - he's my cousin but we don't share the same last name so suck a nut!!!! **** **** ****!)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=---=-=-=-=-==-

Sony went and upset the cool kids again
AMERICAN GRAFFITI | When corporate culture invades counterculture, by Christopher Hutsul
Dec. 11, 2005. 01:00 AM
CHRISTOPHER HUTSUL

In the world of graffiti, turf wars are nothing new. Factions compete over wall space, reach and artistic supremacy. But the latest scuffle over the urban canvas is polarizing the street-art community, and involves one of the biggest companies in the world.

Graffiti purists are rankled by the recent appearance of spray-painted advertisements for Sony's Playstation Portable in several American cities. Although this isn't the first time a corporation has borrowed a street-art aesthetic in an effort to appeal to young, urban audiences, this campaign has been seen by some as an attempt to mimic authentic graffiti, thereby marginalizing the subculture.

"This is just the next step in the colonization and exploitation of a grassroots art form," says Josh MacPhee, a New York-based graffiti savant and author of Stencil Pirates. "It's an affront to the culture. It's like selling the 30 years of graffiti development down the river for a few bucks."

Sony commissioned New York City-based graffiti collective Tats Cru to paint the ads on rented wall space. Nowhere on the ads does it say PSP or Sony. And that's part of the problem.

"The ads were meant to appear as if they were done by artists, that they were an expression of a subculture, and they're extremely deceptive because of that," says Marc Schiller, who runs woostercollective.com, the online street art resource that broke the story.

As one would expect, graffiti purists reacted with spray-paint. Many of the ads, as shown on woostercollective.com, have been painted over, or defaced with dissenting messages. One was marked with a note that read: "Stop hawking corporate garbage on our neighborhood walls." Another: "I don't want this for Christmas."

Tats Cru, the company hired by Sony to do the ads, is a legendary collective of graffiti artists who recently began using their skills for profit. They grew tired of seeing graphic designers emulate their style without any actual knowledge of the subculture, so they went mainstream. Now, to the dismay of purists, they work for the likes of Hummer and Sony.

The people at Tats Cru say there's nothing wrong with making a dollar doing the craft you love.

"We have to make a living," says Bio Feliciano, a member of Tats Cru. "We can't spend every day painting for free. Who buys our paint? Spray-paint doesn't fall out of trees. Graffiti was becoming commercial long before we jumped in. We've just evolved with the art form.

"They say we're selling out, but don't they have jobs? Most of them probably work for big corporations too. Realistically, America is based on capitalism. If Sony has the money to do it, why not?"

Why not? Because it's likely the campaign has perturbed the very community it had hoped to endear itself to. Dissent on hugely popular websites like Wooster Collective is yet another huge blow to Sony, which was chastised in web forums just a few weeks ago when news emerged that CDs made by the company were covertly installing anti-piracy spyware on users' computers. Then, just as now, the online ruckus spilled over to the mainstream media.

"What Sony doesn't understand is that when you go up against a counterculture, people have weapons," says Schiller.

Adam Salacuse, CEO of ALT TERRAIN, a company that creates alternative marketing strategies, says there's a way to do this kind of campaign well.

"It's a bad idea to use the same art across all markets," he says. "We believe legal graffiti murals should be a blend of original and corporate imagery to be effective, or better yet, have brands sponsor wall space for street artists. The key to the whole thing is to create campaigns that are embraced by consumers and not rejected by them."

The PSP characters have yet to appear in Canada. We contacted Sony offices in both Canada and the U.S., but neither party commented on the controversy surrounding the campaign.

[NeW 2 dA sCeNe]

Heres Pics

http://www.woostercollective.com/images2/boyy1.jpg

http://www.woostercollective.com/images2/psp1.jpg

http://www.woostercollective.com/images2/psp2.jpg

i think its cool. but stupid of sony, it shows instead of playin PsP, they can ride rides, tag, skateboard, eat popsicles,play with puppets, and play wit those toys that hav that ball that u can hit.

i was kinda jokin there, but they shoud rly hav there be the PsP logo on them

i dont think it was done by sony



but good article

[snow2skate]

Money is what talks in this world.

[SpLiTbomber]

ya that campain is smart but gay cuz tis all b retarded

[harm]

http://www.flickr.com/images/spaceball.gif

FU TATS CRU!

LOL!

Haters...!

I give 'em props for making cash doing graff... but they also gotta expect and deal with the inevitable backlash.

<_<

[PureSole]

"It's an affront to the culture. It's like selling the 30 years of graffiti development down the river for a few bucks."
WORD. Fuck these *****s.

[snow2skate]

Originally posted by PureSole@Dec 12 2005, 06:00 PM
"It's an affront to the culture. It's like selling the 30 years of graffiti development down the river for a few bucks."
WORD. Fuck these *****s.
a few thousand bucks .... Sony likely payed them enough money to buy a house. around 30 000

[ares]

There's a big difference between selling out and getting by. But seriously, comprimising who you are and what you do to put up advertisments for sony? Fuck that..

[Ravek]

ahh thats not going over to big in the world of writers, but tats has to make some money, its not graffiti, its bidniss

[OrokuSaki]

those pictures dont look like graffiti to me,
other than the fact they are on a wall.

[PureSole]

^Define graffiti. Moron. Snakes does graffiti. Its defined vandalism, not "looks a certain way"

[PureSole]

graf·fi·to (gr-ft) KEY

NOUN:
pl. graf·fi·ti (-t) KEY
A drawing or inscription made on a wall or other surface, usually so as to be seen by the public. Often used in the plural

Pussy

[magic nyc]

Tats Cru did walls for Nellys album and no one said shit but when its Sony it matters?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5...4488&q=graffiti (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5250189303590534488&q=graffiti)

[alive]

thats the technical definition
but you and i both know that it has come to mean something different

i wouldnt mind at all as long as they added their logo
but its a bit cheap otherwise

btw. . . the pigs could track you down anyway if they really wanted to you idiot
but they wont bother
so no worries

[jekl>AN]

yea that is a dumb advertizing campane

[screw_loose]

i didn't take the time to read that whole article.

[PureSole]

true...but for that clown im using the technical

[Tony]

Originally posted by magic nyc@Dec 12 2005, 04:06 PM
Tats Cru did walls for Nellys album and no one said shit but when its Sony it matters?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5...4488&q=graffiti (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5250189303590534488&q=graffiti)
i think you missed the point...that mural they painted for nelly is baisicly a large version of his album covers put together....what they did with the psp shit was try and pass it off as legit graff on the streets...



http://www.woostercollective.com/images2/joystiq.jpg
http://www.woostercollective.com/images2/pi5send2_f.jpg
http://www.woostercollective.com/images2/moreback1.jpg
http://www.woostercollective.com/images2/november05-028.jpg

[FuLa]

i think it does kinda suck that graffiti becomes mainstream and actually a profession...like a degree in college....but w/ out this probably it wouldn't have reached the point it is at now.

[FuLa]

oh yeah and the funny thing is that the fact that TATS cru is doing it...it makes it bad and shit...if another group came and painted some paintbrush hip-hop ish thing, probably nobody would give a shit..look at the Ipod comercials, they have breaking, baggy pants, all that shit(or comedy central) but nobody's saying shit to them...

even if Tats painted that w/ paintbrush it would get dissed I THINK...just because they are tats cru.

[Tony]

some stuff i found from vane awr/blah/blah/dilated peoples

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/6236/dscn02715wd.jpg
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/9539/dscn02743wp.jpg
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/3915/dscn03024eb.jpg
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/2017/dscn03080ab.jpg
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/615/dscn02738bc.jpg

and some stuff norm did for radiohead

http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/5776/hail1lv.jpg
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/3237/hailtothe1oz.jpg


oh, and harm, my aunt also writes for the toronto star. :)

[.:dare2:.]

i hate it when companies use graff. i bet if i went to a shop owned by sony and bombed the shit out of it theyd buff it the next day. its allright to make some money here and there from graff but working for sony is differnt. and that part about having to pay for paint and how it dosnt grow on trees, well i dont have a job when i want to paint i steal my shit (most of the time) cause thats all part of graff. if you cant steal paint and u have to pay for every single can you shouldnt be writing.
not saying they shouldnt be writing cause they are dope but they should stick to their leagal murals. their artists not bombers.

[its me]

i don't like seeing big companies jumping on the graffiti bandwagon at all, but i could care less if TATS cru did the add campain. they have definatly paid their dues over the years, they should be making a living doing what they obviously love doing and getting paid big dollars.

[xylene hug]

this reminds me how jesus is sponsored by reebok

[SALVO]

If I saw that shit where I lived I wouldn't think twice about going over it.

[screw_loose]

Originally posted by FuLa@Dec 12 2005, 10:04 PM
i think it does kinda suck that graffiti becomes mainstream and actually a profession...like a degree in college....but w/ out this probably it wouldn't have reached the point it is at now.
use the edit button or take a longer break.

[.halo.]

You guys have to think about this from their perspective. I asked TOTEM2 about the PSP shit because someone went over on of his older pieces with those fucking things. You know what, it was him...and he HATES those fucking PSP things. However, if it makes the difference of feeding your family or not, you can't really blame them. I mean, let's face it, writers aren't exactly rolling in the dough. And if you are, then you either have a real job, or you're not buying enough paint. The point I'm trying to make here is that if we should be mad at anyone, it should be Sony for taking advantage of writer's need for cash. Fuck Sony, not TATS CRU!

[FuLa]

Originally posted by screw_loose+Dec 13 2005, 02:10 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (screw_loose @ Dec 13 2005, 02:10 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-FuLa@Dec 12 2005, 10:04 PM
i think it does kinda suck that graffiti becomes mainstream and actually a profession...like a degree in college....but w/ out this probably it wouldn't have reached the point it is at now.
use the edit button or take a longer break. [/b][/quote]
don't tell me....
fuck you....

[FuLa]

Originally posted by screw_loose+Dec 13 2005, 02:10 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (screw_loose @ Dec 13 2005, 02:10 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-FuLa@Dec 12 2005, 10:04 PM
i think it does kinda suck that graffiti becomes mainstream and actually a profession...like a degree in college....but w/ out this probably it wouldn't have reached the point it is at now.
use the edit button or take a longer break. [/b][/quote]
...what do to
...in the ass

[smitten]

fuck all that shit that aint even considered graff to real writers
what writers need to do is say fuck these companies and keep it for ourselves

[NiHiL]

not fuck tats....
fuck sony...
tats have to make a living... correct???
as they said paint dont fall off of trees...
(i wish it did :rolleyes: )
the bit how the space to do this art was rented thats so wanky!!!!
but u know if sony offerd one of you guyes 50,000 im sure you wuld say sure i know i would 50,000 worth if ironlaK cans and otr's lol

[@!Ck$]

graffiti is "the new shit" hasnt anyone noticed? its in tons of comercials and all over trendy skate clothes and jeans and what not. i just wish these trendy corporate fucks would stick to their abercrombie and bitch and quit exploiting everything.

[VAbomber]

wtf fat joe..... fucking pathetic

[harm]

Personally.... I've got love for tats, how can you not?! If they wanna make some chedder good for them, obviously some peeps will hate it, and will go over it, etc.... so what, you think they give a shit, those cats are laughing all the way to the bank.

And as far as shit like this "commercializing" graff, give me a break...

...as long as I'm alive, I'mma live illegal. There will always be dirty, grimy, tagging and bombing.

WORD!


B)

[it-cant-rain-all-the-timelalala]

i dont even like their design, too much zombie

[juggernaut]

Originally posted by harm@Dec 13 2005, 09:59 AM
Personally.... I've got love for tats, how can you not?! If they wanna make some chedder good for them, obviously some peeps will hate it, and will go over it, etc.... so what, you think they give a shit, those cats are laughing all the way to the bank.

And as far as shit like this "commercializing" graff, give me a break...

...as long as I'm alive, I'mma live illegal. There will always be dirty, grimy, tagging and bombing.

WORD!


B)
FOR REAL
i think thats about exactly how id put it...word harm
this shits funny to me because in a way sony paid me to do this same kinda thing-but nothin on the level of this tats cru stuff
i got cans and complete control of the outcome
but im not gonna get into that any more, you know...
never know about that five o :ph34r:

and on the commercialization of graff as a culture...your kids will be able to take graff101 at their college, its being done with hip hop now ;)

[paint-in-my-crackspoon]

graff is for the streets plain n simple........
but.......if you got a kid or wife then thats a diffrent story

[.A.K.4.7.]

you mother fuckers are jelous.
you would refuse and say long live graff if they offered you thousands of dollars for an advertising campaign? I think not.

go tats making that cash money

dont worry, like any fad, this interest in graffiti by corperates will fade away.

[Escape]

People who are talking about writers doing work for albumns i don't see a problem with that for a few reasons, firstly it's clearly for the albumn, no second guessing and it's obvious that it's advertisment, also it's a production it doesn't look like part of the underground culture such as bombing or stencil art. Not to mention taht underground artists have been using graffiti as a means of advertising for more than two decades, why should they stop when they finally get up. Or why not pay money to writers instead of shelling out a shitload more money for an viacom billboard that will only run for a month. Recently i've seen MF DOOM work and Atmosphere work.

The problem with sony is that they aren't being clear about it being advertising. It's not a production, it looks likes stencils which implies stencil art. And people seem to associate stencil art with coded messages and political statements. I think sony is trying to tap into this realm by using unclear advertisments with no real message aside from "graffiti artists love PSPs".

Now i wouldn't rag on TATS cru, they need their money. And i don't have a problem with sony using writers to advertise their products (shit i hope sony approaches me and gives me some money and paint to do what i love). The problem is sony using viral marketing, but sony seems to do this alot, they install spyware on peoples comps, they did that giant skeleton shit for shadow of the colossus. Simply put they try so hard to make their advertisments not seem like advertisments.

To me this is what's wrong here.

People have the right to know when the difference between a stencil artist sharing a message or Sony spewing propoganda.

EDIT- responding to fula
oh yeah and the funny thing is that the fact that TATS cru is doing it...it makes it bad and shit...if another group came and painted some paintbrush hip-hop ish thing, probably nobody would give a shit..look at the Ipod comercials, they have breaking, baggy pants, all that shit(or comedy central) but nobody's saying shit to them...

even if Tats painted that w/ paintbrush it would get dissed I THINK...just because they are tats cru.

You jsut stated the problem. It's TATS cru doing this work, not some unknown crew. TATS has put in a lot of time, they are figureheads of our culture. What they do represents what we do, and it's assumed that we support them. Like politicians, they make their way to the top and then they represent where they came from, supposedly representing the people.

Also you'r probably not down with the b-boy scene. There is huge beef about peopel that do ipod commercials and do music videos. Some people call them sell-outs some people say they 'made it'. The beef exists tehre. Same with dee-jays, A-trak is cathing some heat fro spinning for Kanye West. And obviously it goes on with emcees too, making it mainstream is selling out. it exists in all hip-hop now it's made it's way to graffiti.

Know what you're talking about before you say it . . .and use the edit button.

[FuLa]

i don't get it....were you agreeing w/ me or were you arguing against me?.....it starts out as you're w/ me but then you say "konw what you're talking about before you say it...".....the only thing i got wrong was w/ the ipod commercials

but anyway the ipod th ing is just an example, you can see graff/hiphop/breaking everywhere that also doesn't get dissed & you can't deny that.


don't look at the stupid mistakes one makes & get the overal point....and use the edit button.(?)

[cricri_vouz_nique_salopes]

I didn't sell out. I bought in.













Jealous *****s.

[-ambient-]

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/business/articl...229035709990009 (http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/business/article.adp?id=20051229035709990009)

[Klaz]

you do know that this article is not cos they are buying graffiti so to speak but because some guys cross-hatched it out which lead to the question has advertisin gone to far?

it was in the newspaper over here they cross-hatched it out and wrote "GET OUT OF MY CITY" and "DONT COME HERE".

Well if they wanna use graffiti they should get used to the fact that graffiti is a very territorial and competetive art form.

I doubt they'll be doin that again any time soon eh? :D

[FIGHT THE BUFF]

i love how sony has no control over it though

[Klaz]

^^^haha word

[Mute1]

you know...it seems like tats intentionally made those kids all look like zombie fuckin brain dead idiots...kind of an underhanded blow at the product they are supposed to be repping, which makes me think its not so bad...they made their money and got a subtle message across, that video games are complete bullshit(especially psp which is portable for all the little fagget loser geeks who can't even be without their mind numbing devices when they leave the house to go rent more video games and buy mountain dew)..they are truly pathetic...It would be nice if kids nowadays were most interested in living in the REAL WORLD, rather then living in a make believe world of pixels and buttons. real people do real things.

[Klaz]

nah theres no underlying message and what u just said is total bullshit.
They probably were just goin for a different look.
and video games are better than you so shut your preachin ass up.

[HydE]

i agree with u klaz

[calmlikeabomb]

Originally posted by Mute1@Dec 30 2005, 12:56 AM
you know...it seems like tats intentionally made those kids all look like zombie fuckin brain dead idiots...kind of an underhanded blow at the product they are supposed to be repping, which makes me think its not so bad...they made their money and got a subtle message across, that video games are complete bullshit(especially psp which is portable for all the little fagget loser geeks who can't even be without their mind numbing devices when they leave the house to go rent more video games and buy mountain dew)..they are truly pathetic...It would be nice if kids nowadays were most interested in living in the REAL WORLD, rather then living in a make believe world of pixels and buttons. real people do real things.
you are a fucking idiot........

[shirrockomole]

:huh: i made this same topic and they closed it. ara ja

[whoarethereal evil]

isnt all graffiti advertising say u just hit up a wall or a train surely you are advertising your self as a gaffiti artist who wants sum recoqnition? i rnt sayin its anything like advertising 4 products bt advertising is advertising so just b4 u all get pissed about all these ipod an sony ppl an ppl shud b duin real shit insted of duin it in a made up world , every tag u scrawl every wall train flat surface you hit up your advertising your selves and your medium as graffiti and ur artisitc abilities

so are we all sellouts?

[Ume]

Originally posted by shirrockomole@Dec 30 2005, 03:21 PM
:huh: i made this same topic and they closed it. ara ja
you made 2 of the same topics about something that already had a topic...look at the dates, this one was made dec 12, yours were made dec 29. why would we need 2?

[calmlikeabomb]

Originally posted by whoarethereal evil@Dec 30 2005, 07:20 PM
isnt all graffiti advertising say u just hit up a wall or a train surely you are advertising your self as a gaffiti artist who wants sum recoqnition? i rnt sayin its anything like advertising 4 products bt advertising is advertising so just b4 u all get pissed about all these ipod an sony ppl an ppl shud b duin real shit insted of duin it in a made up world , every tag u scrawl every wall train flat surface you hit up your advertising your selves and your medium as graffiti and ur artisitc abilities

so are we all sellouts?
you are not to bright are you....are we making money with our bus flows, or our burners? some are but they aren't making millions of un-needed dollars, and intruding on an entire undrground population with that, we are making our presnce aware on an unsuspecting mass culture. thereis enough bullshit media out there, an to have them try and jump t something like graffiti is like a slap in the face....itsike a rich kid pretending to be ghetto, its like a mockery...I'm not selling out buy setting a piece, maybe if I did a piece and got a few hundredgrand ide be celling out, and i'm sure ashell not advertising


what ever thats just my speel

[whoarethereal evil]

read it u half witt i sed its nt the same as advertising produxts or sumthing bt it is advertising if people c it and respond youve successfuly advertised ur self and abilities i know were not all sell outs it jus seemed to round of my post quite well lol bt yeah i understand where your cummin from bt u may nt b intentially advertising bt if ur nt advertising ur abilities and atributes what are u duin u hit something up?

[**MATEO**]

i love my psp, i dont love sony though for this advertising. graffiti is wats cool now, we'll just have to wait for this faze to end.

[dcite]

this is fucking lame, and sony will realize. somehow. some like writer or group of people will just show them whats up, and like use this totally against them.
i think it would be really funny if a big add was recreated and than put on some 'non legal' wall, and than sony got fined for tons of money or something, hah.

its seriously funny how like mainstream media and politics and crap contradict themselves. graffiti is illegal. now it is used to make billions of dollars in advertising! great.

my friend saw one of the psp adds, and said, "im going to go step in some dog shit and than wipe it on the wall (with the add on it)"
haha..

[wfl]

well sony is getting the attention they want thats all i gotta say i saw shit about it on the news today and we are talking about it.

[Jy.]

Making money off Graff is bullshit. Especially when fucking Sony is paying you... I think it is totally against the Graffiti culture.

[calmlikeabomb]

Originally posted by whoarethereal evil@Dec 30 2005, 07:53 PM
read it u half witt i sed its nt the same as advertising produxts or sumthing bt it is advertising if people c it and respond youve successfuly advertised ur self and abilities i know were not all sell outs it jus seemed to round of my post quite well lol bt yeah i understand where your cummin from bt u may nt b intentially advertising bt if ur nt advertising ur abilities and atributes what are u duin u hit something up?
corporate shit should stay in ther own advertising rings then, bill boards, tv, radio, magazines, books, news papers, an the money making, and not intrude. you don't find it dsrespectful at all? i dunno, ut when someone tht is rich comes up to me nd tries toact ghett and heart t heart to me just because i'm not gettng the same fetti flow, i dn't fnd thatammusig or funny, thast a fucking dis.....I hve to go so ill rwrite more later...

[jabon!]

but seriously, what is graffiti about? getting up right? well sony just gave tats an excuse to get up, make money and look at them now, theyre more known than ever, yeah, maybe theres a lot of hating going on, but seriously, if they offered you thousands of dollars to put up a few characters, you wouldnt do it? shit, i think theres a lot of jealousy in this forum...theres nothing wrong with making money off what you love-quoting some of the heads that already mentioned this.

a sell out is someone that stops being 'real'. in graffiti, define 'real' i mean, isnt it getting up, living the life, painting? i mean please, its like that natural hate towards kids that live in the suburbs, theres no logic to it, sure, graffiti started in the ghetto as an alternative (to some) from drugs and whatnot, but as EVERYTHING in this world, it moves on, it spreads, and it should be a good thing that more people are getting into it, as long as they respect, you should think of it as our own fault, we got up, every one of us, and people started noticing and it caught their eye, they thought positively bout it, for once...i think this is good, because its offering more possibilities to writers, and if you dont want to paint for companies,dont, its your choice, but fuckin RESPECT...

and all you that will say that it will only get toys writing and all that, sure it will, but how the hell did you start out? no natural talent, no, u had to work on it, but it was probably caused by some inspiring work (even if now you look back and see its shitty, it got you going) and if these toys dont respect, what will happen to them? the same thing that happens to every person that doesnt respect, he gets his ass kicked and learns from his mistakes, welcome to the real world...

[easydoesit]

"or better yet, have brands sponsor wall space for street artists"

yeah this would be be dope....sony should build and sponser walls miles long.... They should buy train cars too. Scary thought really.

[whoarethereal evil]

dam right jabon

[?!?]

oh shit it was the tats cru that did it? word..how much did they get paid for doing that?

[wfl]

i amwriting this on my pspin bed

[GeSuS_KRiST]

while masturbating in a pile of your own shit, listening to total eclispe of the hart? lol sorry

[wfl]

lol that took me like a half hour to write.

[Hask420]

wow that made me loose alot of respect for tats crew:(