Coldplay could get into trouble for 'reverse graffiti'
(Click the photo to see this naughty clean-up project)
We've talked about green graffiti. Now get ready for "reverse graffiti" or 'clean tagging'. Popularized by British artist Paul Curtis, the idea is to stencil what you want to say by pressure-washing onto dirty cement. Sounds like a great idea. I mean, how can you get in trouble for actually cleaning the sidewalks?
Some rogue advertising using this reverse graffiti could get Coldplay and a Canadian cell phone company in a bit of trouble from Montreal authorities. The name of Coldplay's latest album, Viva la Vida, has been washed into sidewalks around the city and a Canadian cell phone company has used reverse graffiti to promote cell phone recylcing.
They could get fined about $200 for ignoring a rule about advertising on public property, and could get up to about $1000 for ironically breaking a cleanliness bylaw, even though the graffiti is cleaner that what was originally there. I'm guessing the fines are not going to hit either pocket very hard.
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The cell phone company has decided to stop the practice and stick to less problematic advertising. No word on whether Coldplay wants to continue the pressure washing.
To remove the 'graffiti' the city could either wait until the cement gets grimed up again or try to pressure wash the whole thing. Either way, this method of advertising, particularly for green-conscious messages, could start springing up more and more. A huge mural in the San Francisco was recently commissioned by the green wing of the cleaning product company Clorox.
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