Remember, Street Art by Street Advertising Services with Water pressure cleaning is not illegal, we are simply cleaning the streets and are not in breach of the Highway Act. We always issue you a contract confirming this when you engage our services.
However, check out some recent articles about Street art and the publicity it can generate
Crisis to roll out graffiti marketing campaign
LONDON - Homeless charity Crisis is using graffiti messages in London in a campaign devised by WWAV Rapp Collins to highlight the plight of the 'hidden homeless' living in temporary housing.
Crisis said the messages, which it dubbed reverse graffiti, "clean up" a dirty section of wall with words that form the image of a huddled homeless person.
The copy reads "Most homeless people have moved on but their problems haven't gone away" and includes the Crisis website address.
Fifteen outdoor locations around London have been marked with the image.
Crisis said that despite fewer people now living on the streets, there was still a sizeable hidden homeless population of thousands "living invisible lives" in hostels and other temporary accommodation.
The charity said the campaign would aim to help people find a route out of homelessness and rebuild their lives by finding them affordable housing, training and grants to begin a career.
The campaign is the latest WWAV Rapp Collins London has done for Crisis, and follows the agency's national press inserts work and digital marketing through MySpace, Facebook and the charity's See The Potential microsite.
Andrew Page, director of fundraising at Crisis, said: "This campaign seeks to highlight that, while there are less visible signs of homelessness, the problem remains a major one and it's imperative we get public backing that will allow us to continue to offer the help and support that can literally lead to many men and women rebuilding their lives."
03 June 2002
Financial Times: Creative Business
Is it street art – or plain graffiti?
Brand-building is a tricky business, and with many audiences feeling increasingly alienated by traditional forms of mass communication, the temptation to turn to more ambient means of connecting with them is strong.
As a result, recent years have seen a dramatic increase in so-called guerrilla marketing – a broad term which includes any kind of promotional activity which is remotely subversive, unorthodox or even technically illegal. Examples range from a fake funeral procession through central
For many years, this type of guerrilla marketing has been seen as the sole providence of dodgy businessmen, obscure record stores and independent nightclubs. But the times they are a-changing. Now accepted as an important element in the brand-building toolkit, guerrilla marketing has been rapidly adopted by mainstream brands such as Diesel, Microsoft, BMW and Royal & Sun Alliance.
Brand-building is partly about connecting with customers and partly about awareness-raising. But while guerrilla marketing provides a cheap means of achieving the latter, it is perhaps better understood in terms of connecting with consumers. As guerrilla marketing agent Simon Henderson says: “Major corporations have latched on to this form of marketing, but not only for cost reasons. Guerrilla marketing also provides products with a much sought-after ‘cool’ or ‘street’ image.”
The Observer, for example, often flags up new supplements or free offers using fly poster campaigns – something it’s difficult to imagine The Sunday Telegraph doing.
Trevor Robinson, MD of ad agency Quiet Storm, which works with a number of youth brands, says that some younger audiences can feel that conventional poster advertising talks down to them: “Almost by definition, billboard advertising is seen as a ‘corporate’ medium.” By contrast, he says, flypostering and stickering have a very different feel, and can involve certain groups of consumers by adapting to their environment.
However, while guerrilla marketing may be successful, it is controversial. Many metropolitan councils struggle with stickers and posters which they deem to be breaking the law. Camden Council spends over £100,000 a year removing marketing materials and often prosecutes those responsible.
Westminster Council takes a similar line, and last year formed a special anti-graffiti and flyposting unit to counter what it describes as “an explosion in street advertising”. Wayne Stephenson, head of the unit, says that “while guerrilla marketing may count as ambient media in the eyes of its beneficiaries, the overall effect of a build-up of stickers and posters can be one of neglect and disrepair”. He also points to a strong perceptual link between a tidy environment and a crime-free one.
However, Royal & Sun Alliance thinks it may have a solution, as demonstrated with its “Where’s Lucky?” campaign which launched its “More Th>an” insurance brand last year. “We take social responsibility very seriously,” says Jon Sellors, PR manager for the brand. “We had removed all the posters within days of the brand’s unveilling.”
But Royal & Sun’s approach still caused a few raised eyebrows in council offices. Says Kenny Wilks, head of
Illegal it may be, but a debate is clearly hotting up about the best way forward for all parties. Despite the controversy about the existing rules; about which sites are suitable for flyposting and which should be off-limits; and whether the law is liberalised or not, one thing seems clear. In the struggle to keep brands relevant to young consumers, guerrilla marketing is here to stay.
Article from BBC.co.uk
Eyes down for 'vandaltising'
NB. Other brands of g-string are available
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Fortunately, the graffiti reference to 1939 - not a good year for many people - is not a neo-Nazi threat, but a bit of "guerrilla advertising" for a rock band, The Crocketts.
1939... still here
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Record labels eager to court rebellious youth are not the only ones branching out from more traditional methods of street advertising - some major companies are now dabbling in "vandaltising", and giving it a new twist.
Graffiting walls is old hat it seems, so vandaltisers are instead daubing the very pavements on which we walk.
In the US last year, computer giant IBM used "biodegradable chalk" to leave mysterious symbols on the streets of New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.
Think different, IBM
IBM then launched a poster campaign letting city dwellers know that the strange drawings were part of its attempt to promote a new PC.
The stunt backfired when street cleaners in San Francisco said the chalk "tags" were far from biodegradable and in fact took 200 hours to scrub off the paving slabs.
One man was arrested in Chicago for drawing the IBM logos and the corporation eventually coughed up more than �100,000 to placate enraged city officials across the US.
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"They're done in completely washable chalk, we've been very careful about that," says Camilla Foster of marketing firm Yellow Door, who masterminded the campaign.
"Upsetting the authorities with graffiti might give you publicity, but not of the best type. The rain will wash away our chalk.
"People are swamped with billboards. This was a more subtle way of introducing the brand. And a lot cheaper. Firms which once feared getting into trouble, now find guerrilla tactics more acceptable."
Urban blight
Andrew Pelling, who chairs the graffiti committee of the London Assembly, is unimpressed by Gossard's tactics - fearing they won't help his effort to cut London's �100m annual graffiti clean-up bill.
"Though using chalk may be environmentally less damaging than spray paint, it's still not very helpful that a company should encourage the idea of defacing street furniture," he says.
It washes off, honest
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While Mr Pelling is not pleased with companies which graffiti - even by showing it in TV commercials or borrowing graffiti-type logos for posters - he reserves a special distaste for advertisers who pick up spray cans themselves.
"We often complain that young graffiti writers don't know the costs involved in clearing up after them, but companies should understand that expense," he says.
High risk
Veteran advertising executive Graham Singleton says he is "amazed" large firms with huge marketing budgets would risk using such guerrilla techniques.
"It can backfire. Most responsible firms wouldn't do it, but for some small companies trying to break onto the scene with a rebellious, fresh image it can pay back in spades.
A recent report by a UK marketing firm caused consternation by advising leading manufacturers to make their products more appealing to young people by giving them "criminal kudos" - partly through guerrilla marketing.
Own goal for Derby
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Though seemingly "outlawish", UK advertisers using graffiti may not actually end up in trouble with the authorities.
The London Assembly grimly admitted in May it is the "generally held opinion that the courts and law enforcement agencies do not regard graffiti as a serious offence".
Indeed, some councils are not above a little vandaltising themselves. Derby city officials fighting illegal graffiti were left red-faced last month after an entertainment venue they run spray-painted ads on local pavements.
However, Roger Edwards, the Assembly Rooms general manager responsible for the ads was unrepentant. "It is a little bit of the guerrilla marketing to catch people's attention. To some degree it is graffiti, but it is done very stylishly."
Stylish or not, council workers were set to work scrubbing the streets clean