Andre the Giant Has a Posse

what is doubly ironic is that the media campaign, Andre the Giant Has a Posse, started as an experiment to challenge the nature of commercialised, corporate advertising, has discovered that his poster and sticker campaign is remarkably profitable and has become that which he was against from the beginning. even Shepard Fairey in an issue of Print magazine, once a fierce critic of advertising is quoted to have said (paraphrased): "advertising isn't bad--advertising doesn't put a gun to your head and make you buy stuff..."

Sorry to spoil the party but there was an exhibition of limited edition prints of all this Andre the Giant stuff.

At the time I worked in an ad agency and I know for a fact that many creative directors of big, nasty, corporate London agencies were invited to the private view by the exhibition's organisers. These creative directors liked the work and bought lots of prints.

While this does tell us something about thirty-something creative directors trying to feel cool by buying into an anti-commercial thing. It also tells us about the commercialism of art. So not only is this work profitable but it seems a large chunk of it is paid for by the same people it attacks. Doh!