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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Re: Oh, and a Big Wrist Slap to Caffe Vita

posted by on November 5 at 20:16 PM

For the dozens and dozens of you who think I’m a histrionic jerk for calling Vita to the mat for cashing in on a beautiful thing—I admit it, the post was a little shrill. But my point stands. From the comments thread:

Monday night, a friend and I went out at about 1 am to poster the HOPE posters that Shepherd Fairey had sent to us to ensure a victory here in Washington state (hey, it was officially a swing state at the time they sent them to us).

I saved them until Monday night so that people could wake up Tuesday morning and see them, and be like “YEAH. WE ARE GOING TO DO THIS THING!” (I based it on a “This American Life” story about a guy who spray painted frogs around his neighborhood.) My friend added the VOTE TODAY slips to help ensure no one flaked out.

It was cold and really, really rainy. Like soak-to-the-bone rainy but we saw late-night partiers who were like, Right on! So we kept going, taking a few to near the U District too.

Tuesday morning, I woke up, and Caffe Vita had papered over Shepherd’s posters with their own. My heart dropped.

With gillions of blank walls all over Capitol Hill, they papered OVER his artwork with their ad. We had put them up in two places. They picked one of those specifically to paper over ours.

In order to sell coffee with Barack’s image. When we have 5,000 coffee places on the hill.

Asshats.

We repapered at about 4 p.m:

http://seattlest.com/2008/11/05/seattlest_pix_08nov05.php

But they wrecked the moment, for reasons I still don’t understand.

And:

Absolutely. My friend has “before” pics from when we were putting it up at 2 am that he’s posting to his blog.

You know, whatever. Obama won. The Supreme Court won’t be filled with Alitos. In the end, it’s just posters.

But it was so great when Shepherd Fairey’s people gave them to us, and violating the spirit of that to sell more coffee is just…yucky.

Yucky. That’s the word I should’ve used in my original post. Parodies of and homages to the Obama icons are fine—we put one on our cover the week before last—but appropriating them in order to sell people stuff is yucky.

RSS icon Comments

1

I don;t care about appropriating. I DO care about covering up good stuff with commercial paper.

Posted by Jubilation T. Cornball | November 5, 2008 8:36 PM
2

Brendan, first the theatre thing, then the Hell Haus and now Vita? I dub thee Controversy.

Posted by Scott Dow | November 5, 2008 8:37 PM
3

You mean, "The Stranger" ISN'T in the business of selling anything?

Pot/kettle/black.

Posted by You Can't Spell Hypocrite Without The Hip | November 5, 2008 8:39 PM
4

What does this have to do with pit bulls or youth pastors?

Posted by umvue | November 5, 2008 8:47 PM
5

"oh my god, i was soaked to the pussy here in seattle". boo fucking hoo. obama isn't the second coming of christ and i don't think most of you believe in christ anyways. grow up and get over it.

spoiled hipster fist fuckers.

Posted by get the fuck over it | November 5, 2008 8:51 PM
6

hadn't heard about the papering over bit, and the timing - i can see your point. strange behavior on their part, frankly...

Posted by yelahneb | November 5, 2008 8:59 PM
7

oh my dear - oofta! what on earth is so wrong with a business being excited and figuring out how to prosper right there along with a campaign official. god only knows how many career campaign staffers made oodles and oodles of cash off of Barak's victory. Cut them some slack. it's the happiest day of my adult life, there!

Posted by OOF DAH | November 5, 2008 9:01 PM
8


Do you effete snobs think any actually cares about internecine color commentary about high end coffee shops?

The lumpen proletariat under Obama drinks drip!

Thick rich cheap drip from McDonalds -- rated America's Number One, just like Barack Obama.

The running dogs of the Seattle Bourgeoisie will be scowled at by the hyenas of espresso-ism.

Posted by John Bailo | November 5, 2008 9:03 PM
9

i just looked at the art and the combination of the two is FAR more beautiful then either on its own would be.
you accidentally got to be greater then the sum of your parts which feels nice when it happens, i know.

Posted by OOF DAH | November 5, 2008 9:11 PM
10

If you want to be shrill be shrill, it's a free country ain't nobody got no right to tell you not to be shrill!

Posted by Sargon Bighorn | November 5, 2008 9:13 PM
11

I for one don't mind Kiley being a little angry. He's awfully cute when he's miffed. I didn't think President-elect Obama as a harlequin was such a clever idea. Not hip. Not amusingly offbeat. Just kind of insulting.

Posted by Bauhaus | November 5, 2008 9:42 PM
12

Not surprised, Caffe Vita is crappy.

Posted by AJ | November 5, 2008 9:42 PM
13

It's probably not Vita's fault. They hired some over-zealous shills (i.e. tweaked out societal dropouts) who only cared about getting their posters up.
The positive aspect of this: the same tweaked out societal dropouts would elsewhere have voted for Ms Palin and would have no doubt covered their scrawny *chests* with whitewash and rouge to the titillation of Savage.

Posted by kinaidos | November 5, 2008 10:01 PM
14

No, I don't think Vita gets off the hook just because they hired jerks. Maybe they should have put more thought into who the were paying to do the job.

Posted by elenchos | November 5, 2008 10:16 PM
15

Yeah, after hearing that description? Kinda douchey.

Posted by flamingbanjo | November 5, 2008 10:23 PM
16

Excuse me, but you do sell ads, right? To make money? To pay your piddling salaries and line the publisher's pockets? Explain how your cover art is any different -- except that you litter the city with tens of thousands of your rag, rather than the relatively small number of posters Vita put up.

Posted by rjh | November 5, 2008 11:07 PM
17

Fuck Vita. And fuck people who equate putting ads in your newspaper so you can offer it for free with ripping off a politician right before an election.

Posted by Big Sven | November 5, 2008 11:16 PM
18

still banging this silly drum?

how, again, is a for-profit newspaper different than a for-profit cafe? I also like how the "wrist slap" link still has "fuck you" in the URL.

Posted by josh | November 5, 2008 11:44 PM
19

Does anyone else care that both parties here were committing vandalism?

These "gillions of blank walls" aren't there to be covered over with posters. These signs are a complete eyesore.

This holds especially true for Cafe Vita. They're putting up little mini billboards all over Capitol Hill in the name of corporate advertising. If Coca Cola did the same, we'd be screaming bloody murder. They shouldn't get a free pass because they're a local company.

Posted by Robert | November 5, 2008 11:48 PM
20

I think it was kind of douchey of Vita, but whatevs.

I guess I'm more surprised by all the histrionic accusations of hypocrisy. What, the Republican are out of power so now you little glue-sniffers need to find something else to be all indignant and self-righteous about?

Have a drink. Take a shower. Get a job. Move on.

Posted by Judah | November 6, 2008 12:02 AM
21

"Parodies of and homages to the Obama icons are fine—we put one on our cover the week before last—but appropriating them in order to sell people stuff is yucky."

oh... I see your point as in The Stranger isn't trying to sell anything... right... like all those god damn ads in the paper, or your political clout, or your agenda, or your humpfest, or oh how about your election party at the showbox. Yup your right... it is yucky!

Posted by Apttitle | November 6, 2008 12:34 AM
22

wow, that sucks. While pretty dickish of the perpetrating posterer, I seriously doubt the management set a policy of covering up all the Obama posters. People make mistakes. I think it's a bit cavalier to be calling for a boycott of a business that employs people in your community. Especially now. Maybe allow Vita to respond?

Posted by Yardlie | November 6, 2008 6:09 AM
23

OK, I think papering over that on Election Day does earn you the title of asshat. The only proper rectification? delivering them a literal ass hat (imagine sitting on someone's face, but less sexy, more indignant).

Posted by Lara | November 6, 2008 6:20 AM
24

Talk to Poster Giant about it.

Posted by newpuppy | November 6, 2008 6:22 AM
25

They did this in Ballard during the Primaries. I felt the same way. One day I drove past the Ballard bridge and saw the HOPE posters and got all warm and fuzzy. The next they'd been replaced with VITA posters. I used to go to the Vita by my house a few times a week. I haven't been in one since.

Posted by Bryce Beamish | November 6, 2008 6:46 AM
26

dang...I thought Bailo might go away now.
speaking of jackasses.

Posted by jean genie | November 6, 2008 7:28 AM
27

Yay!

You know, if you're all angry about the Slog calling out Caffe Vita on this, um, OK. My previous posts weren't meant to be a dissertation on capitalism or a pity party for being out in the rain wheatpasting. It was just supposed to describe my direct experience, including the bit about going to vote and seeing them be postered over--and feeling bummed about it.

In our small little way, my friend and I just wanted to start that day off with that excited, we-can-do-it feeling that wound up taking over Pike and Broadway at midnight Tuesday night.

Brendan, I have a wrinkled-from-rain HOPE poster I'll send your way as thanks for cheering me up after a bit of dumb unpleasantness in an otherwise awesome day.

Posted by hopemonger | November 6, 2008 7:56 AM
28

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

and silly shit from some silly seattle poser straight people - sounding like the thought or art mafia

queers are mourning the losses in calif, arizona and florida

oh, that

Posted by Larry | November 6, 2008 8:22 AM
29

@28

Nice assumptions.

Both of us are queer, and bummed about Prop 8 too.

Posted by hopemonger | November 6, 2008 8:25 AM
30

Brendan, can you cut this shit out?

We're talking about a small local business here. I'm sure this ad was slapped together quickly by a couple people in the wake of Tueday's incredible victory who somehow didn't anticipate how it might impact your delicate sensibilities. And my aren't they delicate! Using Obama's visage in a poster - what is this world coming to?!

Save the outrage for more the thousands of larger, more deserving targets out there.

Posted by Sean | November 6, 2008 8:37 AM
31

@30

Nope. They put them up some time between 2AM Tuesday and 9 AM Tuesday, when I drove past. Not post-victory. Before any of us knew Obama had it.

Posted by hopemonger | November 6, 2008 8:52 AM
32

Kiley, you have no standards, principles, or intellectual framework. Your impulses and whims govern you.

Posted by KileyIsImpulsive | November 6, 2008 8:56 AM
33

You do realize that the two-tone poster with a framed head and shoulders shot comes from Italian and French political posters, and has been in common use in Mexico and Argentina for decades, right?

Geesh.

Go get some sleep - and watch the speech on On Demand.

Posted by Will in Seattle | November 6, 2008 9:23 AM
34

You're an idiot, Will, a stone-cold moron. As are a bunch of the rest of you. They PAPERED OVER the "hope" posters (I have one in my window) with their commercial rip. It's not the commerce that's wrong, it's the papering over. Not "yucky" -- more like "scummy".

Posted by Fnarf | November 6, 2008 9:51 AM
35

Just today I was marveling at the beauty of a rose gorwing from a crack in the sidewalk, then a bunch of Strangers littering the bus stop blew past.

I cried a little.

Posted by Jeff | November 6, 2008 9:56 AM
36

Don't litter. It gets in me way.

Posted by Tumbleweed | November 6, 2008 10:16 AM
37

I think it was a lame move by vita.
Its a matter of common courtesy, you don't need to poster over other peoples work, unless the event has passed. And couldn't they get a away with putting up just a few instead of covering the entire wall. Lame!
Is Vita friends of, or maybe using poster giant? Another group with bad ethics when it comes to postering. I wonder.

Also for those of you who says The Stranger is only being controversial. DUH!
It creating a community dialogue. And If you think that is a bad thing then why are you even commenting on this board?

Posted by Coolio | November 6, 2008 11:03 AM
38

You know those HOPE posters? That's advertising too. I know they look cool and all, but why is political advertising more noble/important than advertising for coffee? Shit, Cafe Vita doesn't have a $750 million budget. The Obama Campaign did.

I agree that it's lame to cover somebody's stuff, but that's how it goes in the poster game.

Would anybody be pissed if they were McCain posters that got covered? I got my doubts.

Posted by gillsans | November 6, 2008 11:19 AM
39

@38

True, about the advertising.

But one clarification: Shepherd Fairey donated these (you know, free, and paid for the printing and shipping) to help support Obama in our urban archipelago. The Obama campaign had nothing to do with it. This was a gift from the artist and his people to our city. Grassroots all the way.

Posted by hopemonger | November 6, 2008 11:31 AM
40

It's ridiculous that they covered up the hope posters. I don't see them everywhere I go. Sure they're in one of every three windows, three to five placed over other posters at every beautiful poster location, at least one on every newspaper stand, et al. (Not counting the Obama O's everywhere.) It just kills me that Vita would cover up a couple of the hope posters. Without them I'd have to walk an entire step, or just stand there and look around to see a different one. It's like they KILLED all of the hope, ya know?!

Posted by Mr. Poe | November 6, 2008 11:36 AM
41

wtf are you people crying double standard for? Do you pay for a subscription to The Stranger? Did you pay a cover to get into the Election party? No? Then STFU and get out. :)

Posted by GW2 | November 6, 2008 11:43 AM
42

You know, The Stranger doesn't create all that litter. It's your dirtbag neighbors doing that.

Posted by elenchos | November 6, 2008 11:51 AM
43

Okay, I was gonna try to stay out of this, but I was the "friend" who helped put up posters. My questions to the Vita poster folks would be:

Okay, ha-ha, cute parody of my candidate's poster. I get the joke, and appreciate the aesthetic reference to Fairey's design and I'm big enough to laugh at what you're doing. I myself subscribe to Adbusters magazine, love subvertising, and even designed an Obama buttons that were a knock-offs of the Coke and Pepsi logos. While my committment to Obama and his campaign was passionately serious, I don't take everything too seriously.

But those are two mighty large walls at the corner of 11th and Pine, and could you at least have NOT papered over the ENTIRE areas, covering ALL of our posters that we put up? If anything, allowing a few of our posters to remain would only magnify the irony or satire of your design by showing it in context, still put your point across, and still advertised your coffeshop--which, by the way, where many Obama organization meetings were held, by folks who bought your coffee and pop and pastries.

In addition, when I went back to re-poster the wall on the afternoon of Election Day, I made sure the HOPE posters didn't completely cover yours. There was room for both of us. We proved it.

(I will soon post photos of the entire Obama Versus Vita sequence on my blog.)

So one last question: do you still want us holding Obama 2012 organization meetings at Vita? Or should we just take our groups (and our money) to Victrola or Bauhaus or Rosebud, etc.

With mutual respect (and a call for just that)...

Posted by Andy Niable | November 6, 2008 12:15 PM

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