maya hayuk.

New-York based artist Maya Hayuk has the kind of fearless attraction to wild colour that makes me want to give her the key to my condo and ask her to do whatever she wants to the inside. A genre-bending mix of graphic design, graffiti, illustration, paint, murals, outdoor, photography, custom laptops for Sony – Hayuk’s work defies a box. She’s just one of those people that constantly creates.

One thing is clear: Hayuk is fearless. Graphic sexual prints (for proof, check out her screened painting “Fuck Mountain“…) sort of stereotypically show that she doesn’t shy away from the taboo, but I think it’s more the rare mix of so many different styles and media that prove she’s unafraid to try anything… which is probably why she succeeds at everything.

Though her work crosses numerable styles, it’s her brightly-colour graphic work that I like the most. I’m blown away by this corner-wall mural she did at Rental Gallery in NYC last year:

I especially love how the edges reflect against the windows, doubling and refracting the image while also over-laying it across the horizon of the city:

When Absolut, beyond legendary for it’s groundbreaking print campaigns, delved into TV advertising for the first time ever, Hayuk was one of four contemporary artists chosen to bring the bottle to life. Thought it would be easy to call her a “street artist”, I like her response to that label in this interview she gave for art of spirits at cocktail times promoting the Absolut ads:

No one has really been describing my work as “street art” for a while. I did my share of acrawling onto things I wasn’t ‘supposed’ to but most of the work I did out of doors (“on the street”) was commissioned, legal murals. I lived in San Fransisco for 10 years and the tradition of mural painting is something alien to east coasters and just straight lost on most of America.

“Street art” is pretty much a tender euphemism for “graffiti.” I would love to make massive murals on the sides of buildings, walls or bridges. Does that make me a “street artist”? I don’t think so. My work employs many formal similarities to “street art” – bright colors, graphic elements, accessible imagery, not overly conceptual content. I think the term “street art” is a marketing cop-out because history hasn’t come up with a better way to describe the genre and companies are constantly searching out the “next” demographic, which is in continual flux. It’s usually people who aren’t artists themselves who are obsessed with “packaging” and “Genre-typing” styles of art, music and writing.

Check out Hayuk in action in her spot, “Absolut Release”:

Speaking of her mural and outdoor work, here are some of my faves:

This is just the tip of what she’s got going on. The scope and amount of the work on her site is unreal – there are literally hundreds of works and every one is unique. It’s gotta’ be seen to be believed.

Via Lifelounge

absolut: “mundo absoluto in mexico”.

There are a few things in the world that just don’t make sense to me: Nicholas Cage’s successful film career. Vegetarianism. Crocs.

But if there’s one thing that completely mystifies me it’s attempted censorship. As an artist, I think it offends my very nature. Anytime that ugly little beast coerces a company to remove any work of art, media, or culture from the collective “many” because of the opinion of the narrow-minded, but vocal, “few”, I get very angry. We all have the right to our opinions, but nobody has the right to undermine free speech and promote censorship.

The question, one that I can’t answer even though I’ve thought about it, is “Why are some Americans completely incapable of having a sense of humour about their own country?”

(AP Photo/Teran/TBWA)

So here’s an ad that ran last month in Mexio, created by Teran/TBWA for Absolut Vodka. The map shows Mexico’s borders before The American-Mexican war of 1846-1848. The war started when Mexico had the cojones to not recognize the U.S. annexation of Texas. It’s been a sore spot with Mexico ever since, as the transfer of land and re-drawing of borders post-war usually tends to be.

The joke is simple, innocent, and harmless, and was only ever intended to run in Mexico. No harm, no foul. That’s until American media outlets got a hold of it, the ad started to spread across the web, and I’m sure you can guess what happened next.

People lost their shit. The Absolut website got a couple thousand complaints, threats of a boycott, and the Neo-Cons foamed at the mouth at the audacity of anyone to ever assume that the world could possibly be a better place is America had less land. People starting reacting as if Mexico had made a formal declaration of war and was massing troops along the Rio Grande.

The offender takes over a billboard in Mexico City. Pic courtesy of Kyle Fletcher.

The main point of all this, the one that drives me nuts, is that somewhere along the line everyone managed to forget that this was just an ad. It’s not a UN treaty. It’s a vodka ad.

Last week, Absolut’s makers Vin & Spirit said the ad was created “with a Mexican sensibility” and was not meant for the U.S. market. Absolut released an apology saying “In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues.”

No shit. That’s because it’s an ADVERTISEMENT FOR VODKA. Just the fact that anyone should have to explain that a print ad isn’t literally suggesting the Mexican annexation of Texas proves how worked up some people are. Worse than that, the fact that some Americans would react with such vitriol towards Mexico over something so inconsequential illustrates just how intrinsically racist the offended, boycott-happy bunch really are.

Want proof? Here are some of the choice comments from the website absolutads.com:

“How about an ad that shows a mushroom clowd [sic] over Mexico and USA people rejoycing [sic] that we don’t have to put up a fence to keep law breakers out. Thats no worse than you giving half of our country away.”

“In an world of Absolut America haters, the USA wouldn’t exist. But, where will the Mexicans run to for jobs and indoor plumbing?”

“I know what an intelligent marketing move is: pandering to a bunch of illiterate Mexicans, most of whom are dirt-poor and have no discerning taste anyway, while pissing off millions of savvy Americans, who can, far and away, afford to purchase much more of your product and are more likely to drink it anyway. Genius!”

“How dare you INSULT The United States just to sell your poison to some hispanics. I hope you go under from lack of sales.”

“The makers of Absolut have crossed the line. They are now encouraging the overthrow of my country. Screw them.”

Who are these people? If they put half the energy of their vehemence over this ad and morphed it into, say, working to fight cancer or stopping global warming or saving Darfur, just imagine what they could accomplish. “Encouraging the overthrow of my country…”. Are you fucking kidding me?

One particular foamy-mouthed Neo-Con blogger, who I’m not going to name because a) I don’t want to give them any more credit, and b) I’m worried they’ll try and have me killed, went as far as to post this lovely graphic response to the ad, photo-shopped by an equally foamy-mouthed reader:

Wow. I don’t know what else to say to that except wow. I wonder if these people get all chest-beaty when they think about the Statue of Liberty, or does that entire “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…” concept only get upheld when it’s convenient?

Sure, the global opinion of America is at an all time low and maybe they’re feeling a little deflated, but it’s still the richest, loudest, shiniest, showiest, most powerful country in the world. Isn’t that enough to just chill out and let Mexico get a little jab in? Do people seriously think that Mexico will have a few vodkas and say “Gee, that Absolut ad has the right idea… let’s take our non-existent army and invade California. That’ll show those Yanks…”.

I’m not trying to paint an inaccurate picture that these few complaints speak for all Americans. The problem is that these are the type of people that speak up. This is who Absolut is listening to. That’s what bothers me.

I’m disturbed that the racism of someone who can’t correctly spell “cloud” is partially determining what kind of advertising the rest of us should see. No matter the issue, discrimination and hatred is never a valid response.

Thanks to kp for sending me this.

red cross: “compassion” + “tolerance” + “awareness”.

Check out this straight-forward and compelling campaign for the International Red Cross that was posted on Behance by art directors Pier Madonia and Canadian Stuart Macmillan. Besides the high quality of the work itself, there is something so stark and thought-provoking about the commodification of a human emotion. What a different world we’d live in if we really could bottle awareness…

Thanks to my friend James for reminding me of the hypocrisy that’s hiding inside these ads. These ads are for the International Red Cross, but the Canadian Red Cross, despite the blood bag filled with “compassion”, doesn’t accept blood donations from gay males. Apparently it’s 1981. I half expect them to say something like “Due to the rise in gay cancer, we’ve decided that…”. It’s ludicrous.

You’d think that by 2008 any supposedly humanist and forward-thinking organization would realize that supporting this kind of homophobia is dangerous. We all know that AIDS is not a gay disease. We all know that AIDS doesn’t discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, class, or race.

AIDS can be contracted by everyone. Everyone (except gay males) can donate blood. Therefore, anyone with AIDS can donate blood. To maintain this kind of discrimination against gay men is pointless, offensive, and does nothing to protect the blood supply. All it does is prevent sick people from getting blood they could use…

How compassionate, tolerant, or aware is that?

Via Josh Spear

atari: “since 1972”.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’m a nerd when it comes to old-skool stuff techie stuff, like Epson printers and anything involving dot matrix. So when Atari – the legendary creator of home gaming – takes one of my fave design trends, pixellation, and incorporates it onto one of my fave things in the universe, advertising, I pretty much wet myself. Who wouldn’t want to play golf with a Pong ball, anyway?

(Agency: The Republik)

Via Denver Egotist

hansaplast to the rescue.

Super-cute (that’s right… I said “super-cute”) new print ads for Hansaplast by TBWA Barcelona. The next time I cut myself I’ll be thoroughly disappointed if a little fleet of medical LEGO® people don’t drive out of my torso and get to fixin’.

virgin mobile: “#9”.

First Hillary, now good ol’ Spitzer. Here is the latest in our new topically-aware series of ads, copywritten by yours truly. It was blogged on the US politicial news site Politico,  Adrants, and on Gawker. Notice that big long line of copy they quoted….yeah baby.

honda: “plant this letter”.

Green is the new Ad. As part of it’s new drive to raise the green-cred on it’s lawn and garden vehicles, Honda sent out a direct mail letter that literally grows. Once soaked in water and planted in soil, the seeds inside the paper itself grow into wildflowers. Though one could fairly easily argue the environmental implications of a direct mail letter (the creation of more paper, regardless of it’s biodegradability or green purpose, uses chemicals and expends energy… I’m just sayin’) the romantic in me loves the beautiful idea of this letter:

Brain-stormed by London, UK agency Inferno and copywritten by Jaime Diskin, they really seem to have walked their talk on this one: the envelope and paper were 100% recycled and acid free and the inks were green-friendly as well.

There’s a certain green simplicity going on here that I really love. Keep in mind this isn’t the first time something like this had been done; earlier this year Bogle Bartle Hegarty Asia created plantable tags for Levi’s Eco Jeans (made from 100% organic cotton) that had the whole paper-with-wildflower-seeds thing going on. Still, an idea this cool deserves to be re-envisioned. Plus, the concept of viable seeds embedded in paper existed before either of these campaigns and neither of these agencies invented it, so I think it’s fair game to find new ways to use such an eye-catching concept.

virgin mobile: “bill control”.

I have to admit, I love my job. But there are some days when I reallllly love my job. Copywriting this spot was one of those days.

chevrolet: “blonde”, “brown”, + “grey”.

I really like these new print ads for Chevrolet’s Official Service Centre. The oddest thing about them is that this proves how socially engrained pictures of freakish over-operated celebs have become. If it wasn’t for libelous nature of the US, these ads could just as easily be Jocelyene Wildenstein or Mickey Rourke or Meg Ryan or any other pseudo-celebrity who’s had more attention for their botched face-jobs than any sort of actual accomplishment or achievement.

Besides that, “Blonde”, “Brown”, and “Grey” (aptly named) are just really effective ads:

(Agency: McCann Erickson)

welch’s: lick me.

So, this is kinda weird and disgusting. This month in People magazine Welch’s ran some grape juice ads with a lickable taste strip. If you can get over how ugly this ad is, then I guess it makes sense… except for the fact that it’s totally gross. I get the feeling this isn’t actually an attempt to create viable lick n’ tast advertising, but more of a publicity stunt. Maybe I could understand if it was Welch’s Starfruit Juice or Welch’s Durian Juice or Welch’s Cumquat Rambutan Beetroot Medley, but who in North America doesn’t know what grape juice tastes like?

I guess they figured the novelty of the licking strip would make up for a complete lack of messaging, style, design acumen, meaning, and attractiveness. Despite the fact that the ad itself says “remove & lick”, the makers of the strips – First Flavour – had to release a statement saying that “Our product, which can be attached to a print ad and peeled off, is a sealed tamper evident foil pouch containing a piece of edible film. (Similar to popular breath strips.) One peels opens the pouch and places the piece of edible film on your tongue. The edible film dissolves quickly leaving you with a burst of flavor. No licking involved!”

Anything that requires that much explanation (especially for something that should be as straight-forward as this) is just a poorly executed idea. Welch’s sucks.