Life in The Fast Lane: How Urban Car Ads Depicting 'Street Art' Can Backfire

Article By:

David Halberstadter
National Law Review, Volume XII, Number 27

Vehicle manufactures and their ad agencies really love to show off their driving machines in action. Television commercials depict sturdy, reliable trucks hauling tons of cargo; four-wheel drive SUVs navigating perilous terrain in extreme weather conditions; and sleek sedans cruising through cityscapes of gleaming skyscrapers and funky urban streets.

It is on the funky urban streets where car manufacturers can sometimes steer in the wrong direction. Their commercials often feature street scenes that may include recognizable landmarks, historic buildings, public art installations like sculptures and wall murals, and even distinctive graffiti. Carmakers aren't the only retailers entranced by "street art." Makers of athletic shoes and apparel like to incorporate graffiti-like designs into their fashions and ads, as well. Filming other people's art, even when in public view, can result in copyright claims, litigation and attorneys' fees, not to mention potential damages. This article offers a brief roadmap for avoiding such claims.

Graffiti: Jaytalking in 19th Century Paris

The files of Paris police from the late nineteenth century reveal the tumultuous politics of the time through the graffiti recorded in them.

By: Matthew Wills
JSTOR Daily

January 24, 2022

American histories of urban graffiti tag Philadelphia in the 1960s as its birthplace, but people have been scrawling on and carving into walls around the world for millennia, long before the advent of spray paint. Scholar Elizabeth Sage digs into the Paris police files for examples from the late nineteenth century, the fin-de-siècle [Journal of Social History, Vol. 49, No. 4], when the police actively documented the “political, obscene, sincere, humorous, or just plain cranky” writings they found in public.

Late nineteenth century cities, Sage reminds us, were “often represented as politically, morally, and physically dangerous.” The streets of these cities were also—and continue to be—“places of spontaneity, disorder, and resistance.” In Paris, the “perception of streets as dangerous and ambiguous spaces,” where the classes mingled and could be hard to tell apart, meant that the “streets were closely regulated” by the police.

Sage uses urban theorist Andy Merritfield’s notion of “jaytalking”—like jaywalking, but meaning speaking where people are not supposed to—to explore graffiti chalked on “wall, tree, urinal, park bench, or sidewalk,” among other places, in defiance of police regulation.

Tokyo shop strives to digitize to preserve traditional Komon stencil dyeing technique

January 16, 2022 (Mainichi Japan)

LINK to article.

TOKYO -- A workshop in Tokyo that creates products using a traditional Japanese stencil dyeing technique called "Edo Komon" has launched a crowdfunding campaign to digitize and preserve the extremely fine patterns which are on the brink of extinction.

The dyeing studio Tomita Sen-Kogei Co. (Tomita Dyeing & Crafts Co.), located at the foot of a bridge over the Kanda River -- a site famous for cherry blossoms -- was founded in 1882. The shop sells kimono, as well as neckties, scarves, umbrellas, wallets and other items employing the dyeing technique of "Edo Komon" -- a method that developed during the Edo period (1603-1867) and is known for its extremely small patterns which cannot be seen from afar.

The paper stencils used to attach the intricate patterns onto fabric are primarily works by craftsmen from Mie Prefecture who carve the designs by hand. The workshop, and industry as a whole, is facing a crisis in terms of the protection of the craft and skills amid difficulties to preserve the stencils as well as a shortage of successors.

Just a quick note that the Stencil Archive was experiencing a few hiccups on the server-side of the site the past 48 hours. While working with host tech support, they noticed that Stencil Archive's databases were on two different servers in two different locations! This slowed down load times.

The site is now on one server in one location, the databases have been successfully updated, and all appears to be loading faster and working normally.

This could be an imagined improvement, or it is indeed faster (and normal). You never know with tech. :P

If you see anything odd, beyond the very old posts not being formatted properly, let us know.

Meanwhile, a larger site upgrade looms here on our 20th year. And we'll get back to more content uploading this weekend.

<3.... Stencil Archive

Thanks to: TXMX, Jaime Rojo/Brooklyn Street Art, Josiah and Candice, @Emily_Lykos, @GraffitiRadical, u/Everything4Everyone, u/nzrqrb,

Spinning: WDCB, KCSM

>NEW< MARLIX (DE)

>NEW< nat at art (DE)

1980s Blek (just one)

C215

CSP (just one)

Liz Art (just one)

M-City (just one)

Marshal Arts

ork (just one)

Pirho (just one)

Props (just one)

Rude

Rumo (just one)

TaZe (just one)

theYoung (just one)

tona

txmx

USP

>NEW< EZP (Paris, FR)

After a mostly dismal start to 2022 (covid-related... you don't want to know!), the Stencil Archive was happy to see a few emails in our inbox from stencil OG EZP (Insta link) in Paris. Painting walls since the 1980s, EZP had scoured the Archive photos and found some of his older works, including one of his daughter as well as some from the now classic 2007 Difusor Stencil Meeting (this fun gathering is worth revisiting since it happened back in the heady days of the public art wave that eventually got labelled as street art).

I asked EZP to help me update the Archive albums where he found his work. I also encouraged him to send me some photos so that I could rightly feature his stencils in his very own Archive album. He nicely obliged, so click the link above to see his old and new works on the walls in France.

After 20 years of the Stencil Archive, we are always excited to hear from artists and help update their photos and information. We're grateful that EZP contacted us and enjoyed chatting with one of the Parisian originals. 

We'll get through this together.... with more stencils in our lives!

Thanks to: Jaime Rojo/Brooklyn Street Art, Josiah and Candice, @Emily_Lykos, @GraffitiRadical, u/Everything4Everyone, u/nzrqrb,

Spinning: streaming random radio stations: KCSM, WUSC, WRAS, KZSU

A few from Australia

Add Fuel in Miami

Aiko in Miami (just one)

Arizona (just one)

Argentina (just one)

1980s Blek!

Switzerland

Colombia (just one)

Germany

Hamburg (not a TXMX photo)

>NEW< DotDotDot (NO)

Spain

Greece

Italy

Illinois (just one)

Joe Iurato in Miami

>NEW< marycula (DE)

>NEW< Macedonia (MK)

Miss.Tic (FR)

faile

Los Angeles (just one)

fnnch (just one)

Thanks, as always, to Josiah and Celeste for their endless submissions!

The Mission

Haight and Divisadero Streets

In the Western Addition

Illegal ads in the Financial District

Other SF locations