via artnet news, 4-21-09:
"ENJOY BANKING" STREET ART
"The most effective means to get through these challenging times is humor," writes blogger/dealer Ed Winkleman, referring to the social value of "Cash for Your Warhol," a project profiled in a recent Artnet News column [see Artnet News,
Apr. 16, 2009]. As another example of arty black humor, Winkleman cites
the current "Enjoy Banking" street art campaign, large cheerful
stickers glimpsed on the streets of New York -- for instance, green
bubble letters declaring "Enjoy Subprime Lending" recently appeared on
the storefront of the closed headquarters of Guild & Greyshkul
in Soho. Other stickers in the same style proclaim "Enjoy Stimulus
Package," "Enjoy Consumer Confidence," "Enjoy Credit Crunch," "Enjoy
Golden Parachute" and "Enjoy Bailout Package."
The campaign seems to have struck a nerve. So, who’s behind it? An internet search reveals a website www.enjoybanking.com -- which however, offers little more than the ability to input name and email for future updates. Enjoy Banking’s Twitter page (www.twitter.com/enjoybanking) is marginally more illuminating, with its bio describing itself as "Multimedia art and in4mation campaign responding to changing economic landscape. *We Like* Art. Marketing. Financial Media. Economy. Design. Educate. Street."
Such an approach would seem to indicate that the guerrilla sticker campaign represents either an artist’s Shepard Fairey-inspired riff on marketing, or a marketer’s exploitation of Shepard Fairey-style viral activity (or both?). At any rate, the various Tweets offer links to articles on investor Warren Buffet and economist Martin Fedlstein, and street artists like Barry McGee and Ron English, in equal measure. A Flickr page, seemingly by the same entity, charts the progress of the "Enjoy Banking" campaign in pictures.
