February 21, 2008
Respect My Authoritah
The above "Obey Spray" illustration is one of a series of Madvertisements (also featuring products such as "Empowermints" and conditions such as "Excessive Patriotism Disorder") by media tigress Carly Stasko, originally published in the January/February 2002 issue of This Magazine. Look familiar? Says Stasko of the "Obay" campaign for Ontario colleges, they're "so similar that I'm wondering if we just had the same idea or if they have riffed off of my original." (We think it's probably the former, but it wouldn't at all surprise us if someone at Smith Roberts had a subscription to This and has been storing the Madvertisements in his or her unconscious for years.) The photo, by the way, is a young Dave Meslin.
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Eh, I don't think this is a case of plagiarism. It's not like no one has ever made a mock advertisement before Stasko.
I agree. And I think it's pretty clear that this post is not accusing anyone of plagiarism. (Stasko even says it was potentially "riffed off," which suggests something more like inspiration than the "p" word.)
This Obey/Obay stuff is getting more boring by the second.
I wonder how much of an impact the internet and its infinite ability to store and recall almost everything ever published will have on the creative process.
I bet people have always been ripping off years-old ideas, but before there was never such an archive to prove it...
lol. This ad is guilty of the very thing it's attempting to satirize. How embarassing.
Reminds me of the unintentional humour in that billboard ad campaign a few years back with the headline "literacy is a right."
spacejack - Those ads can still be found on the silver bins around the city.
I don't see much similarity. Even at a "riffed off" level. They're saying very different things.
Ms. Stasko's ad is for rebranded pepper spray, to be used on misbehaving kids to teach them to respect the military-industrial complex.
The Obay ads are for a fictional lobotomy-pill, to be used on kids to replace their dreams with those of their (specific) parents.
The first is essentially about beating kids for the "benefit" of the state. The second is about brainwashing kids for the satisfaction of their folks.
This reminds me of that crappy ad campaign about 10 years ago on Toronto bus shelters. Does anyone remember the "... is coming" campaign (I think that's what it was). I remember it featuring a fat, homely guy, and I believed it ended up being for a restaurant. This "Obay" campaign is just as stupid!