Monday, April 16, 2012
Arts / City PosterGIANT Apologizes for Postering Over Murals
Posted by Cienna Madrid on Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 1:32 PM
Workers at posterGIANT—the guerrilla advertising group that everyone loves to hate—are frantically working to strip promotional material in Pioneer Square after enraging artists by postering over walls of public art over the weekend.
- posterGIANT
The abandoned building on Second Avenue and Main Street is unremarkable but for one reason: its broad array of traffic-stopping public murals. That is, until yesterday, when word spread that the art had been covered up by wallpapered walls of the same poster, a heavy-handed publicity tactic commonly associated with posterGIANT.
Seattle artists understandably flipped their shit (mostly via social media sites), and began organizing a boycott of businesses that used posterGIANT's services. "They vandalized every single mural: it appears to be a total loss," writes artist and arts promoter Scratchmaster Joe, who led calls for a boycott. "If I had to guess, I'd say that the murals they vandalized probably took several weeks and perhaps thousands of dollars in paint."
posterGIANT's full apology statement after the jump.
We deeply regret that the murals were damaged – this was a mistake and not a company directive. We are in the process of removing the posters and have already been in touch with the artist who installed the mural so that we can return the artwork to its original condition. It is our policy not to cover over other people's art – we support the local arts community, work with the local arts community, are a part of the local arts community and frequently hire members of the local arts community as part of our business and creative endeavors. We are making this right as fast as we possibly can and we assure you this will never happen again.
No word on if artists are mollified by the gesture, or if the boycott is still being organized in light of posterGIANT's apology.
Nobody could be so completely blind stupid to not realize what they were covering up with that those cheezy ad posters.
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Especially taggers. Hanging's too good for them.
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I don't say that to forgive this posterGIANT outfit - who I have never heard of before this. It's just that this building has always annoyed me. It is a handsome structure, and could be so much more than a palette for whatever we are calling "art" these days.
Fix the building up, get it back on the tax rolls. Then let's talk art.
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this building is a free for all that occasionally has charm (like the john williams mural) but at the end of the day it's a boarded up shithole that gets D+ art on it every once in a while.
i've seen posters covering dozens of murals over the years. why is this one so special?
postergiant is a group of assholes for a lot of reasons, but this isn't one of them. fuck that building and its boring art.
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As for Poster Giant, I don't care for the eye sores they subject us to, but they do seem to be doing their best to make this one right. I mean, they're apologizing and cleaning it and not being jerks about it, so there's got to be some brownie points in there somewhere.
First and foremost, I am contacting PGs clients to assure they are aware of the tactics of their vendor. As of now, I'm organizing a boycott of Poster Giant, but not yet their clients, as I am quite sure that many of their clients will have some strong feelings about PG's tactics, and therefore, I view their clients as allies, rather than enemies. Poster Giant is the enemy. Their clients are not the enemies at this point. I'm looking to work with them, rather than fight with them, and I don't see a fight with their clients being necessary at this time. However, to boycott companies that choose to do uninterrupted business with Poster Giant, even after learning of their tactics, well, at that point, would they really be any better than Poster Giant? Or would they be enabling them to do terrible things? But ultimately, I'd much rather make friends than anything else... But a company cannot just bury its head in the sand while they pay someone to fuck over everyone else. There must be some accountability
http://www.change.org/petitions/postergi…
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