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In a savvy mixture of viral advertising and graffiti art, two different entertainment products have strikingly similar ads up around the city. Both of the campaigns for the HBO series Rome and the horror movie Turistas are playing on that tendency of New Yorkers with black markers to tag outdoor posters -- by doing the work for the would-be graffiti artists. What makes both of these posters seem clever is how nicely they fit in with the product, as well as the New York streets.
On the first season of the historical miniseries Rome, graffiti which slandered certain characters was a part of the plot, so for posters to advertise the new series with slogans like "Pulo Is A Thug" or "Atia Is A Tramp" fits in with the show's story. As for Turistas, a scary movie starring Josh Duhamel about stupid American tourists attacked while on vacation in Brazil, it makes sense to visualize the movie with an attention-grabbing, faux vacation poster and the phrase "Turistas Go Home" scrawled across it.
If so much of the city's public space is going to be available for sale to advertisers, it seems like the least these companies can do is give New Yorkers something creative to read as we walk past.
[Photos by Karen Wilson of advertising space on East 7th Street at Third Avenue. Rome will air the second season starting in January and Turistas hits theaters Dec 1.]
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Shouldn't the posters read : "Pulo Was A Thug" or "Atia Was A Tramp" since the show took place in ancient Rome?
"What makes both of these posters seem clever is how nicely they fit in with the product, as well as the New York streets."
Are you on crack?
These have nothing to do with graffiti as an art form. And there is certainly nothing clever about them.
When Advertising Meets Grafitti...
NYC loses.
The best one is the one up in Nassau station for Man of the Year that says "shit on balls."
My favorite advertising + (real) graffiti was on a Britney Spears poster. This was a few months after 9/11/01, it was advertising Spear's concert in NYC. On the poster was "haven't we suffered enough already?".
"Creative" is subjective. These are pretty good, but I think New Yorkers are too jaded for graffiti advertising. Whenever I see it, I think, "Oh, way to underestimate your target market." But that's just me.
I, too, liked the Nassau-G graffiti. The best are the exchanges from one graffito to another, my favorite one implying that the other commentator's mother was an unwed pregnant teen. I laughed and laughed.
If any of you have watched "Rome", you would know that graffiti was an extremely popular form of political and social dissent during this period. Many of the Roman elite were at one time or another slandered or mocked in the form of graffiti. In fact, the opening animated credits of "Rome" show this.
I think the posters play off this a bit. I like them.
Thank you, Juliette. I also learned this in high school Latin. I think the posters are really cool and have more to do with being historically pertinent than appealing to a city audience.