FILA Sneakers Hijacks Banksy Street Art in London

Banksy is arguably the most famous graffiti artist in the world. Banksy is a pseudonymous United Kingdom-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stencilling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.

Shoe company, FILA, decided to do some street style guerrilla marketing and outfit random Banksy street art murals with FILA brand shoes. The campaign to hijack Banksy artwork in London has garnered mixed reviews. It’s obviously a very risky guerrilla-style marketing stunt to attach a brand name to politically charges street art.

The advertising agency, GREYgermany, then used google adwords to direct people searching for answers to this phenomenon to deichmann.com, an online retailer that sells shoes.

Credits

Advertising Agency: GREYgermany, Duesseldorf, Germany
Chief Creative Officer: Fabian Kirner
Creative Directors: Alexandros Antoniadis, Martin Venn
Art Director: Brad Vatidez
Concept Developer: Serdar Kantekin
Account: Linda Koenen
Client: Konrad Nowak
Additional credits: Mathias Renner
Published: April 2014