Wednesday 24 July 2013

Banksy vs the World

The picture above is from Banksy's website. It's obviously one of his artworks.

I took the pic below when I was in Auckland earlier this year.

It was a prominent piece of signage in the window of an upmarket lifestyle store called World.

So what came first?


Banksy often takes a easily recognisible brand images and subverts them.

However I very much doubt that is the case here.

Which means (I'm guessing) that the sign in the World window is a reproduction of a Banksy.

Thinking about it now I'm pretty sure I came across two World stores in Auckland. And they both had that signage in the window.

I love the irony of a critique of consumerism being used to market a store that actively promotes consumerism.

There's every possibility that Bansky would get a kick out of it too.

But I wonder if the people behind World do?

And more importantly I wonder how they would feel if Bansky challenged them over the use of his artwork.

Guess we'll never know. Will we?