The industry and my thoughts

A majority of what I know about NYC wild posting came from a conversation I had with a man who I saw pasting them up one night. It was snowing and late, and while he worked, we talked for 2 hours. Here’s what I learned according to someone who I have no reason to distrust. 

The people who paste these posters on the street work for a third-party company—not the brands themselves. The world of wild posting is fascinating, but in the end, it’s a business like any other. There’s office politics, two major rival companies, and nervousness about how long the industry itself will survive. On the other hand, these jobs have their perks: impressive compensation and benefits, great clientele, and the satisfaction of being good at what you do.

What is unique to this industry is its legality. The workers who are out on the street can be arrested for doing their job—a job that’s essentially commissioned by a brand. And these brands are somehow less accountable because they’ve hired someone else to take the fall. 

Unless the space was leased out by the property owner, the act of putting up the posters is illegal. The person who I spoke with had been arrested multiple times and referred to his corporate lawyer as a “good guy” because he always got him out.

When you think about street art and advertising in (dis)respect to the law, it’s easy to see there’s a double standard.

“If you don’t have permission, it’s generally labeled graffiti and we will prosecute”
- Detroit police Officer Dan Donakowski.

The government removes artist’s wheat pastes and tags all the time, but wild posters get left up and are pasted over with new ads again and again and again. Like somehow it’s more acceptable to see advertisements for expensive handbags versus art that uplifts the community. It’s a dangerous indication of how we as a society have lost control (and perspective) over the visual nature of our own environments. 

Whether you’re an artist or a brand, I understand that if you get caught, you get caught. But if successfully executed, what’s the difference between a graffiti tag and a brand name? Yet 9 times out of 10, it feels like the government wants to go after street artists—when in reality, 9 times out of 10, advertising spreads mass consumerism, a singular ideal of physical beauty, outdated racial stereotypes, and false happiness.

“You can't put things on people's property without their permission.”
- Detroit 36th District Court Judge Kenneth King

With wild posters, the brand names are clear and easy to read—essentially telling the police who’s responsible for the poster. Yet I don’t read about the police locking up the CMOs at ad agencies. It’s like these big brands have found a loophole in the law, but that same loophole doesn’t apply to street artists. After all, the police get to pick and choose who to go after. The low hanging fruit is the Coach headquarters on 34th street, but instead they go out of their way to lock up street artists.  

Wild posting is equivalent to a child who wants to throw a rock at a window, but instead persuades and pays another child to do it. The window is broken but the police don’t care because when they picked up the rock and it had a brand’s logo etched on it.

The one thing they did get right about that theory was that the devil is in the details.