You’ve probably seen the looming Rambo face which started popping up on billboards last month to advertise the new Rambo flick. Pretty interesting that the main ad campaign is biting stencilists and street art. Once again street artists influence people trying to promote products instead of ideas. Not to say that the ad doesn’t look relatively good. But ain’t it funny that you can spend a whole bunch of money if you are a film studio and put up the poster all over town to advertise a violence-filled film, but if you are a broke kid with a good design for self promotion you are a felon!?!
It was also pretty funny that the LA Times article calls it a nod to Banksy. Is Banksy the first and only stencilist? Or is he the only one rich ad executives are aware of and trying to bite?
Here’s what the LA Times had to say:
“In a city where massive billboards for movies and TV shows hover over every intersection like demigods, the “Rambo” poster stands out; it’s at once eye-catching and subtle, more evocative of a hipster’s T-shirt than a marketing scheme to promote the fourth (and first, in 20 years) installment in the “Rambo” series.
The stencil-and-spray-paint image, done by Jason Lindeman of Ignition Print, seems a nod to the work of Banksy, the infamous and ironical British graffiti artist whose work now commands high sums. “
“This was never meant to be the whole backbone of the campaign,” Palen said, noting that the image has ended up as an 80-foot billboard in Times Square. “