Obey

I may show myself to be the out of touch old fogey that I am with this post, but it cleared up some confusion on my part.

For quite some time I had been seing this face around town on signs and walls and whatnot and had been wondering what it was.

I had some idea that it was attempting to be vaguely big-brotherish and had that confirmed when the word OBEY! sometimes accompanied the image.

I asked people I knew if they knew what it was, and most of them didn't know what I was talking about and the ones who did didn't know what it was either.

Apparantly, that's the whole point.

From the Obey Giant website:

The Obey campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology. The first aim of Phenomenology is to reawaken a sense of wonder about one's environment. The Obey campaign attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question
both the campaign and their relationship with their surroundings.

Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with Obey propaganda provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer's perception and attention to detail.

The medium is the message.

The idea is a bit of viral marketing, which I understand. Memetic style viral ads seem to be all the rage in the advertising industry right now, where attention grabbing is primary, and the message is secondary.

The new image that is showing up around town is a Barney Fife head in various colors and sizes.

I am a bit underwhelmed that the campaign is in part designed to sell skateboards, but not surprised.