Ivette Urbina
Urban Sociology
2/18/09
“Poster Boy”
New York City is extravagant whether it be projects or nicely maintained suburbs,
the city cannot escape the art of the street also known as graffiti. Most graffifi artists
express their abilities through their spray paint; whether it is literature or pictures.
In this article the city is hit with a different kind of graffiti artist, which carries the
name of poster boy. With a razor blade the poster boy cuts and pastes the advertisements
on subways and subway stations. They call this the “anti-consumerist Zorro”. The ads are
altered and the details of the new artwork seem to be witty, however the city finds no
laughter in what they consider vandalism.
Companies which put up these ads on subways also are not happy with the new
art work. The city is doing all it can to capture “poster boy” it even went undercover to a
gathering of artists in SOHO. One person in particular was taken in for the criminal
mischief. After the arrest the police gathered facts that it might not be just one poster boy,
but a whole movement which was occurring in the city.
The movement suggests that the ads in the city are a form modern slavery.
Messing up the posters to show their message is bound to give society a sense of freedom
from the chains of the ads. The poster boy movements have plans of expanding all over
the city reaching out for his cause and creating war for police and companies.