By David Topping

Fauxreel’s pairing with Vespa to produce street art ads has always been contentious; as Carl Wilson pointed out in last month’s Toronto Life, the intersection of street art and money-making is messy as hell. While one Toronto tagger took matters into their own hands to protest the corporate backing, and one Toronto book store threw their ad on top of Vespa’s, others have participated in the discussion by literally changing the subject: a Montreal artist changed one ad to comment on Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz’s relationship, and, near the corner of Peter and Richmond here in Toronto, someone got Barack Obama in on the action. (Reader Kat A captured it in May and sent it to us this week.) Good thing, too: street art—ad or not—isn’t supposed to be static, and while the transformation may not be the perfect example of change we can believe in, it sure is change you can Xerox.
Photo by Kat A