Volkswagen Canada Encourages Artistic Thievery

My list of why I’m slightly jealous of Canadian’s just got a little longer all thanks to the new Volkswagen Art Heist campaign (below). In the new campaign, the German automobile company’s Volkswagen Canada went to the Toronto digital agency Red Urban, to conceptualize and execute a creative out of home campaign for the launch of its 2012 Jetta GLI (right). Red Urban and its combined 6 offices who serve clients such as Getty Images, Diageo, Campari, and Microsoft now adds the VW brand to its client roster. In the campaign for the turbo VW, Red Urban takes the public’s growing fascination of pop up shops and lines it with the cultural love for the arts by creating “Performance Art” galleries in the streets of major cities throughout Canada. The campaign that began this month hit Montreal, Vancouver, and Tronto letting anyone in the gallery take something home.

The Volkswagen Art Heist came as a result of the GLI’s current “Driving can be beautiful” campaign (below). In that campaign, Volkswagen has a 30-second commercial that showcases the vehicle’s light trails by using motion and a long-exposure stills camera. Once Steve Carli, president of Red Urban, saw the stills of the commercial they produced he felt they “looked gorgeous and dramatic…more than ads—they were frameable pieces of art.” And thus the street campaign was born. The “Performance Art” galleries feature hand-numbered and limited “framed long-exposure light painting photographs” created by the Jetta GLI itself. Lights, wheels, maneuvers, and horsepower create the pieces that fill the gallery. While the Red Urban team thought to put the pictures throughout the city, they were initially concerned by the thought of someone stealing the photos. That concern soon turned to excitement as it is what makes the campaign so original. Carli explains that the pictures were positioned in a way that they would appear “slightly askew or something would indicate that they weren’t permanent,” so people passing by would know to take them. So if you happen to walk through the “Performance Art” gallery, you can take one or as many of the paintings that you find. Volkswagen Canada and Red Urban want people to know it’s ok to take them and ask people to post pictures (left) of themselves with their stolen gifts to Volkswagen Canada’s Twitter and Facebook pages. Currently there are 90 numbered pieces with each gallery containing 5 photos.

I love this campaign because it’s in various mediums: outdoor, online, and it connects to the commercial of the primary campaign. It’s authentic because it combines pop up shops with art effortlessly and it’ supports thievery in the most positive way. The campaign has it right, “driving can be beautiful”, but stealing is down-right stunning.

To receive updates on “Performance Art” galleries and heisting locations, follow VW Canada on Twitter and Facebook.

The Volkswagen Art Heist

Volkswagen Canada “Making of ‘Driving Can Be Beautiful’ Campaign”

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Volkswagen Jetta GLI Image: Gear6 Performance
Volkswagen Art Heist “Thief” with Photo Image: Alex Wong via Volkswagen Canada Facebook: Photos
The Volkswagen Art Heist & “Making of ‘Driving Can Be Beautiful’ Campaign” Videos: VolkswagenCanada YouTube Channel

Aaron Brothers isn’t Your Granny’s Store Anymore

Part of what I love to do in marketing is to research brands; from what they are currently doing, who they think they are, the products/services they offer and everything in between. Most of the time, I already have my pre-conceived notion about the brand based on personal experience. Recently I checked out one company who always stood out to me as the senior citizen of all senior citizen brands. This brand is known to others as Aaron Brothers. Just as Ensure or Depends is to senior citizens, I’ve always had this notion that it too was a store for senior citizens. Maybe it’s because everything is so prim and proper, beige, or because I always saw grandmas shopping there when I was dragged in as a child. Yes I put the brand in a box, shoot me. Since I’m not big on frames or making things look pretty Aaron Brothers never appealed to me, but I can understand why people like them and why they’re still in business.

It wasn’t until last week that I thought to check up on the granny company to see if they were doing anything that would halt one from entering an early retirement. Sitting on the website I see they have in store events, whoop-dee-doo. But it’s not until the screen changes that I see they’re hosting graffiti art events that I think, “What the hell happened to grandma??” I saw this ad and I ate every negative and slightly ageist sounding comment that I said prior to this sentence. Forgive me Aaron Brothers, I see the wrong in my ways now. Aaron Brothers, owned by Michael’s since 1995, has been around since two brothers brought the shop to life 60 years ago in Hollywood. Since then, the 1 shop turned into over 135 stores where artists, the craft savvy, and *cough* senior citizens *cough* come to get their supplies and cultivate their art ideas.

To encourage the artistic work by those who enter stores, Aaron Brothers has come up with the Artrageous events taking place from August to September. The events include in store demonstrations, the Artrageous Black Book challenge, and the Urban Art Experience. Aside from the other two events, the Urban Art Experience quickly caught my eye. As the first event of its kind for Aaron Brothers, it’s a set of graffiti art events that clearly show Aaron Brothers taking a step in a highly creative and younger direction. The live mural painting events will be held at its San Diego (8/12, images below), Daly City (8/17), Hollywood (9/10), and Austin (9/24) stores, feature celebrity artists, and art for an online auction to support the Boys & Girls Club of America. Even better, all attendees will receive a free graffiti starter kit; now you can learn to tag like the best.

Holding the Urban Art Experience at their retail locations with local graffiti artists is a great way to reach a new audience and get people to their stores. Creating events to get people to your store is a perfect way to let people see the brand, possibly buy products, and hopefully acquire new customers. With an event close by me, I’ll be checking out the Hollywood event and already can’t wait!

Urban Art Experience, Hollywood
Saturday September 10^th
1pm to 5PM
716 North La Brea
Hollywood, CA 90038

To see how Aaron Brothers really caught my attention, check the video below.

For more pictures, check out Aaron Brothers ArtRageous, San Diego
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Aaron Brothers Logo: Aaron Brother’s
Aaron Brothers Urban Art Experience Images: Aaron Brothers Facebook Page
Aaron Brothers ArtRageous Video: Aaron Brothers YouTube Channel

The Best PEEP SHOW Ever

On my exploration to learn more about art and its various forms, I’ve gone to a few galleries and art shows. Great events in their own right, but it’s not until I find an artist close to home that I get to truly understand its development from conception to display. A few weeks ago I entertained a friend of mine as she was getting a tattoo and somewhere in between the needle and her skin we have a conversation about local art shows. The tattoo artist working on my friend, Alisa King, mentions that she has her first solo show, PEEP SHOW, coming up during the Pomona Art Walk and invites us to attend. We go of course. As I stand in the gallery I can only look over her pieces (below) that clearly express her passion and dedication through detail and think, “This was totally worth the 50 mile drive”. When walking through the show, Alisa unveils a year’s worth of self discovery, expression, and analysis where she found who she is and her self-worth. A very intimate show, Alisa let’s people into her life through her paintings which are seamlessly connected to her either covertly or overtly.

After the show is over I realize I need to know more about both the art and the artist. And so I do. I talk to Alisa about her artist persona and the work she creates and there’s so much more to her that what comes out on the canvas. It turns out that although she has been a tattooing for six years, she’s been an artist since she was young. From drawing with crayons and chalk as a child, taking art classes in school, to painting in the little spare time she has, she has real life artistic experience that is hard to find. While she has artists that she admires, she doesn’t emulate the work of someone else and attach her name to it. Instead, she avoids the idea of becoming reliant on the creativity of other artists and she depends on her own thoughts, emotions, and environment to inspire her work. Out of this, her art becomes “inspired, created, and fueled” by Alisa; ultimately truly unique pieces of work.

While her essence and thoughts are the catalyst to her work, she doesn’t try to tell people how to perceive her pieces. She explains that the purpose of her paintings is to “evoke a ton of emotions when you look at them so you start thinking”. That ‘thinking’ is brought out from the thought provoking type of work that most people are scared to discuss but have to when it’s right in front of you.  Alisa is the artist who shows that there “are two sides to every story” and makes sure that you see each one before making a final conclusion.

If you feel like you missed out on seeing a great artist showcasing her talent, know the series will continue. Her next show, PEEP SHOW 2—HIS & HERS, is already in the works but you have to follow her Facebook page to stay up to date.

To see all pictures from PEEP SHOW, click here.

To reach Alisa directly, email her at: alisa.king.81@gmail.com

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PEEP SHOW Images: Alisa King

Sea Life’s RAINCAMPAIGN

One of my favorite things about marketing is the creative concepts that a brand can take with a unique campaign. It’s a great way for a brand to creatively communicate to an audience and if executed properly, it can bring in loyal followers. A new campaign that has caught my eye is the RAINCAMPAIGN by FRESH GREEN ADS for Sea Life of Scheveningen. FRESH GREEN ADS is a green media agency that provides clients with media that has little effect on the environment. To create such environmentally friendly outreach, FRESH GREEN ADS has to be exceedingly creative and resourceful. For Sea Life, the 30 year old European aquarium and wildlife attraction, FRESH GREEN ADS created a street campaign thrives in the cold and storming winters and spring of Europe. Embracing the gloomy season, the RAINCAMPAIGN puts the Sea Life ad on the streets of Scheveningen, but they don’t appear until it rains. Throughout the dry days the print is nonexistent, but in the midst of the rain the ad appears to remind people to visit the aquarium. It is quite possibly the only reason people may begin anticipate the rain.

To check out the campaign, click the video below.

Sea Life RAINCAMPAIGN

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RAINCAMPAIGN Videos: FRESH GREEN ADS

“Introduction to Hip Hop” Series Part II of III—The Golden Era (1980s)

The second of the three part “Introduction to Hip Hop” series led by Bob Santelli progresses from the roots of hip hop and into its golden era. It is in this class that Santelli and the audience move through hip hop during the 1980s to explore its various forms such as call and response, unlikely yet highly successful collaborations, the introduction of white rappers, and hip hop music’s controversial language. The call and response style started by Curtis Blow in “The Breaks” to the advocacy style of Africa Bambaata with “Planet Rock” brought forth the musical change and dismissal from disco. This would soon be the catalyst to the stylistic endeavors of some of the greatest rappers in hip hop.

Those great hip hop rappers would be the ingenious trio who combined to create Run D.M.C. Arguably the most important group in terms of their great music overall and their ability to change the style of hip hop Run D.M.C. created the most significant mark in the world of hip hop history. This mark was made with the collaboration that many are familiar with when Run DMC joined forces with Aerosmith for of “Walk This Way”. The collaboration set a new avenue for music exploration because it brought together rock and hip hop without either group selling out. The two sides that were initially oil and water combined together to successfully take music somewhere it has never been before. It is also thanks to Run D.M.C. who we attribute the transition in the style of youth clothing from platform shoes and glitter to Adidas sneakers and gold chains which ultimately gives hip hop its own fashion identity.

Finally, the golden era saw the integration of white rappers such as the Beastie Boys who brought the blend of the punk mentality to hip hop’s rebellious nature. Alongside this, hip hop began to not only speak its mind but push the envelope. This was done with overly sexual lyrics, images, and videos through the songs of 2 Live Crew. While it brought outrage, blatant lyrics, and the parental advisory label it gave hip hop music a bit more complexity that would take it to a place where gangsta rap, conscious rap, and samples and would reign supreme.

Santelli’s Tracks to Check

1.      “The Breaks” by Curtis Blow
2.      “Planet Rock” and “Zulu Nation” Africa Bambaataa
3.      “Walk This Way” by Run D.M.C. feat. Aerosmith
4.      “License to Ill” by Beastie Boys
5.      “Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer
6.      “Me So Horny” by 2 Live Crew

To hear the class itself, press play

“Introduction to Hip Hop” Series Part I of III—The Roots (origin, not the group)

A few weeks ago I went to The Grammy Museum at LA Live and absolutely loved it. I loved it so much that I became a member and started to check out all the events and programs the museum offers. On the list of available programs, the museum’s “Introduction to Hip-Hop” series caught my eye. The free event is a three part class led by cultural and music historian Bob Santelli (right). Santelli is the former vice president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum and now is the executive director of the Grammy Museum. With experience as an author, music journalist, and music historian (primarily in African American music) Santelli has a profound understanding of the music world and specifically the hip hop industry.

For this series, Santelli divided the classes into three parts: the roots, the golden era, and gangsta rap to today. Within the first class (audio below), the roots, Santelli explained the unique attributes of hip hop as a cultural movement with its inclusion of trends, fashion, colloquialism, and emotion—all things that genres such as rock and roll or pop do not fully contain. Santelli describes hip hop as “astonishing” and states that “there is no comparison anywhere on the planet as to the amount of music that was created, the number of new music forms that were created, the brilliant artists that come of age, and the overall impact it makes…on the entire world” . To substantiate this idea, Santelli takes the audience though the hip hop world starting with with the first hip hop record “Rappers Delight” by Sugar Hill Gang (1973) in Bronx, New York. Not to disregard the world of Motown, soul, or funk music of the 1960s, Santelli and historians alike note the introduction of “Rappers Delight” as the point in time where hip hop landed on the map. Starting with the Sugar Hill Gang to discussing the epicenters of hip hop and continuing to the innovative style brought by Jamaican Clive Campbell (aka DJ Kool Herc) the first night gave a detailed introduction of how hip hop started and highlights the immediate fathers.

What makes the series a hit is that it is not the type of class where the teacher speaks until he turns blue. Instead it’s an interactive class where the audience can interject with questions and comments, where videos and tracks play alongside the dialogue, and where the subject matter is presented in order for the audience to create their own judgments. Contrary to the ordinary, this class offers a great platform for discussion to give listeners a better understanding of the essence of hip hop, the innovators of the genre, and the music that gave us a majority of what we have today. It’s the type of event to go to if you feel you know everything, need to know a bit more, or know absolutely nothing about hip hop. If you fall into one of those categories, you definitely need to sync it to your Outlook calendar. The last class is Tuesday, April 12, 2011; 7:30pm, RSVP with programs@grammymuseum.org or 213.765.6800 to get on the list.

Santelli’s Innovators to Know

1.        Gil Scott Heron
2.       The Last Poets
3.       Marvin Gay
4.       Grand Wizard Theodore
5.       Grand Master Flash

Santelli’s Tracks to Check

1.        “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” by Gil Scott Herrin
2.       “When the Revolution Comes” by The Last Poets
3.       “What’s Going On?” by Marvin Gaye
4.       “Disco Inferno” by The Trammps
5.       “Saturday Night Fever” by The Bee Gees
6.       “Love Train” by The O’Jays
7.       “Rappers Delight” by Sugar Hill Gang

Turn Up the Volume!

If you weren’t able to attend, you can listen to the audio of the entire class below.

The Grammy Museum

The other day I checked out The Grammy Museum at LA Live. I heard about this museum early back in 2009 and told myself I would visit it as soon as I got the chance. Apparently, that chance would come 2 years later. The museum is a part of The Recording Academy and its collection of all things Grammy related: The Grammy’s, Grammy U, Grammy 365, and so on. The Grammy Museum opened December 2008 by curator Ken Viste right in time for the 50^th Grammy Awards.  As the museum of music, Grammy artists, and the Grammy’s the museum was created to show the birth and maturation of music over the years and its many unseen sectors. While it is in no way grandiose in size, it packs a great deal of information and interactive stations in its four floors. Starting at the fourth floor and making your way down you get to check out everything Grammy related consisting of:

• žFourth Floor: Grammy awards from its start to today, The Grammy award reel, genre listening station, Jon Lennon exhibit (until March 31^, 2011), music epicenters by city.
• žThird Floor: Instruments, The Grammy red carpet most memorable outfits (e.g. Andre 3000, Jennifer Lopez), recording stations, excerpt of lyrics from musicians and artists.
• Second Floor: Clive Davis Theater, Hip Hop exhibits, gift shop.
• First Floor: Entrance, introduction, and elevator.

This museum is quite possibly my favorite simply because of its devotion to music. It is the perfect place for kids, family, solo excursions, and dates. You get to explore music and artists, go through the recording process, and watch the greatest moments in the Grammy award show history. The only negative of the museum is you can only take pictures in certain areas. So none of the great electronic equipment, none of you playing on the drums, and certainly nothing of you next to an actual award. But you can take pictures of the giant boom box (left). That counts for something right?

This is the museum for anyone who claims to be a music enthusiast, has a couple of CDs, or still plays music on a record player. Whether you claim to be an expert or only listen to music in the elevator, The Grammy museum is the place to go.

Wanna Check ‘em Out?

800 West Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90015

Sunday to Friday- 11:30am to 7:30pm
Saturday 10:00am-7:30pm

RIPE Art Exhibition at the Crewest Gallery

On Saturday a friend and I checked out the opening reception of the RIPE Exhibition: A Wine Show about Art Tasting at the Crewest Gallery. Located in downtown LA, the Crewest Gallery showcases work from the hottest, unknown, and underground artist such as Max Neutra, Man One, SMEAR, and much more. Presenting various styles of art from digital to sculpture and graffiti to paint, Crewest gives artists a hub to show their pieces and viewers a place to stop and stare. With music by DJ Phyz Ed, drinks, and conversation bouncing from wall to wall, Crewest is type of gallery to check out whether you’re an avid art lover, new to the scene, or if you fall somewhere in between.

The RIPE event unveiled creative work making use of wine barrels, bottles, corks, or a combination of the three. Whether it was an assortment of skulls and roses atop a barrel lid, a bottle with a message to Egypt, or a functional chair with secret storage made completely out of a barrel, the space was full of talent to say the least. The four-hour event was a great way to either start or end the night and the gallery is a fun place to check out what’s going on aesthetically in the city. While the opening reception ended Saturday, the exhibit will run until March 27th, 2011.

“Wine Barrel Bench” by Antonio Quevedo, $1,500

“Wine Barrel Dolly” by Michael Pizarro, $200; “The Beginning and the End” by Oscar Magallanes, $1,600; “Meditation” by Ando Pndlian, $1,200

“To Egypt with love” by Cyrdes, $200

In addition to checking out the art, you can also purchase current or previous pieces. Looking through art from previous shows, I found an adorable piece, Watercan Love by Joe Iurato, from the Streets Degrees of Separation exhibit January 8th, 2011. Watercan Love is my very first art purchase and I absolutely love it! It’s the type of art that makes you feel good every time you see it and makes you eager to purchase similar pieces. It’s already framed and up in my room and it looks perfect. I love catching quick glimpses of it as I watch TV, work on a blog, or start to fall asleep. It’s exactly what I want and the best piece to start off what may turn into an obsession with art. I look forward to seeing more of his work as soon as possible. My walls and rooms say thanks Joe, but my wallet doesn’t—guess you can’t win them all!

"Watercan Love" by Joe Iurato

To check out upcoming shows at Crewest Gallery, you can follow ‘em or obsess over them at the links below.

www.crewest.com
www.facebook.com/crewestgallery
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RIPE Art Images & Watercan Love Image: Danielle Salmon

Street Art: The Wrinkles of the City

A friend of mine from France, Pierre, knows that I’m falling in love with art and due to his keen knowledge of the aesthetic he tells me about some of the best word of mouth art. Recently he sent me a link to JR who is quite possibly the most innovative artist that I have heard of (Picasso and Michelangelo aside). JR is a French street artist who started at 16 years old has and now at 27 become one of the most creative and ingenious artist around. As the $100,000 winner of the 2011 TED Prize, JR was given the opportunity to live out the TED motto of “wishes big enough to change the world”. In doing so, he hit the streets of LA to expand upon his series, The Wrinkles of the City. The Wrinkles of City is a collection of photographs of real-life everyday residents who live in the city, are connected to the city, and deserve to be the face of the city. With segments of the series in both Spain and Shanghai, JR now put his creativity to work on various buildings the cities of Los Angeles, Venice, and Santa Monica. With very little information given as to where the pieces are, it is up to the seriously interested to eye ball the pictures, piece it to the LA they know, and then set out to find it—an exciting adventure to say the least.

With some of the most talked about art subtly placed right in front of faces, I started my mission to find all of them—and I didn’t have to look far. I ran into the first piece in Silverlake (below) Thursday evening on my drive home. It was strange to believe that this larger-than-life piece was placed right under my nose on the busy street that I drive every day to and from work, yet I never noticed it until Thursday. Either way, I was elated! I got a picture with it that weekend and later that night went on an art adventure to find additional JR pieces with a friend. Not just one, or two, but three were found (really because of her) and we felt like champions.

While I haven’t found them all, I am making it my mission to find as many as possible. Regardless of the amount of gas I burn, walking I do, or time I spend, it’s really enjoyable exploring LA from Echo Park to Downtown LA, especially with a friend. I think it’s unique, engaging, intriguing, and poignant and if you’re in the LA area I encourage you to keep your eyes open for The Wrinkles of the City.

To check out JRs work visit his site.
Wanna see The Wrinkles of the City LA segment? Check out My Modern Met.