 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
His glassy-eyed supporters are enraptured. The media are docile. Hollywood stars make music videos about him.
"There is something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism," Joe Klein of Time magazine has observed.
But we ask you, does the campaign poster on this page remind you of a totalitarian cult?
Wait, don't answer that.
The Soviet-style heroic Obama, the use of a single word "Hope," do make the SEPTA bus shelter posters a bit reminiscent of George Orwell's "1984."
Its more direct antecedent is John Carpenter's 1988 paranoid totalitarian fantasy flick, "They Live." Replace the word "Hope" with "Obey" on that Obama poster and tell us what you think.
The poster was designed by urban street artist/skateboarder Shepard Fairey, who enjoys a successful career as an artist and designer in Los Angeles.
Fairey gained fame with a couple of viral street-art campaigns in the 1990s, including "Andre the Giant has a Posse" and "Obey Giant," which resulted in thousands of small posters and stickers appearing on lamp posts and walls (and everywhere else) in urban centers around the nation.
The question is why the Obama campaign endorses artwork that makes him look like Big Brother.
"The posters are very distinctly Shepard Fairey, and anybody who sees this and is familiar with Shep's work will know it's his work," said Yosi Sergant, an L.A. publicist working with a group of young professionals for Obama.
Sergant doesn't think the Big Brother look will cost Obama votes.
"The type of person who's making a connection between these posters and Russian propaganda is probably set in their ways and has already made up their mind," Sergant said.
It's a generation thing. The kids know Fairey's work, old-timers don't.
"This is a big deal in the youth/arts community," Sergant said. "Go on Facebook or MySpace and you'll see a signifcant number of people using that image as something they embrace."
The posters were created by Fairey as his way of endorsing Obama. A different poster, by the artist Munk One, is also displayed on SEPTA bus shelters.
Sergant said that the ad space - on about 40 shelters - was purchased by Obama supporters and not coordinated with his campaign.
"I can't ever remember a time when the artist community has come together in support of a candiate like this," Sergant said.
Rendell: Not an idiot
With the Pennsylvania primary in the national spotlight, Gov. Rendell's been getting a lot of face time on TV.
|
|
|
|
|
|
today's poll
express headlines
Promotions
photo GALLERY
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
email this
print this
reprint or license this
