A street-art satire of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, done Shepard Fairey-style
In recent weeks, street-art stickers have been appearing around Los Angeles satirizing Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg. What's noteworthy about the stickers is that they appear to be created in the style of Shepard Fairey, featuring the artist's "Obey" logo printed in Facebook's signature white-on-blue font.
The stickers feature a mug-shot rendering of Zuckerberg, surrounded by the text "Mark Zuckerberg has a posse," "$6.9 billion" and "500,000,000 friends."
Look familiar? In the late '80s, Fairey created his viral street-art campaign known as "Andre the Giant has a posse." The campaign became a worldwide phenomenon and remains one of Fairey's most recognizable works.
The creator of the Zuckerberg stickers appears to have modeled his or her design directly on the Andre the Giant campaign, down to the placement of the text and the mug-shot-style artwork.
Is Fairey behind the Zuckerberg stickers, copying his own past success? Or is someone satirizing Fairey satirizing Zuckerberg? (The possible levels of po-mo artistic commentary are endless.)
For now, it appears that the latter is true. The word from Fairey's spokesman is that the artist isn't the creator of the Zuckerberg stickers. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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-- David Ng
Upper photo A sticker satirizing Mark Zuckerberg on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. Credit: David Ng / Los Angeles Times
Lower photo: Shepard Fairey. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times
seriously? is there no end to the media's Facebook obsession? there have been hundreds of parodies of the original Andre the Giant has a Posse stickers. I saw one with Ralph Nader on it -- eleven freaking years ago. THIS IS NOT NEWS OR EVEN NOTEWORTHY.
Posted by: Bill | March 29, 2011 at 04:19 PM
I can say with all certainty that this isn't a Fairey project.
Posted by: Barnaby Jones | March 29, 2011 at 04:58 PM
where's the lawsuit by Fairey? it's just a matter of time... I am so NOT a fan of that guy...
Posted by: Gabriel | March 29, 2011 at 05:02 PM
the Obama face was brilliant but the whole Andre the giant thing is/was not worthy of attention it gets. He should cringe every time it's mentioned.
keith haring did it all better.
Posted by: ken | March 29, 2011 at 09:58 PM
I appreciate all art, but defacing public property and lowering our standards is not the way to make a name for yourself. The creator of the stickers and the people who paste them all over town, are liable for any property damage that results. Cmon people, get a canvas and some paints and man up.
Posted by: Dan | March 30, 2011 at 09:09 AM
All the people who hate franks work can't appreciate where art as a whole is today. The man is a legend in the art world be using his image to get across the message of phenomenalogy.
-Norbz
Posted by: Norbz | March 30, 2011 at 10:28 AM
What is interesting is that Shepard art applied to Zuckerberg sounds now like a real fascist propaganda.
Posted by: Mathieu Tremblin | March 30, 2011 at 12:27 PM
The more people who steal from Shepard "Stole every thing he ever did after that andre teh giant thing" Fairey the better.
No talent media manipulating art hack.
PSHAW!
Posted by: Real Writers | March 30, 2011 at 01:41 PM
What type of spacific culture is overall street art?
Posted by: 00007 | April 14, 2011 at 12:58 PM