More Streetart Ads: Ogo

About 10 months ago I wrote about how Sony tried to advertise the PSP through streetart. This year another company seems to think this is a good idea.

Everywhere in Berlin you'll encounter a little three eyed monster advertising a product called Ogo. The Ogo is a portable chat/email/messaging device created by IXI Mobile and aimed at “generation SMS”¹⁾.

This time it is easily recognizable as advertising because the graffiti usually comes with the company URL or a product picture.

I was wondering how legal this campaign is and started digging for some more info.

It was created by a very new media agency called Robot Berlin. A post by Christian Boris Schmidt clarified the legal status a bit. He sent a mail to the guys, asking about the campaign and this is the answer he got:

The motives were created by Berlin streetart artists and accompany a Berlin-wide poster campaign. […] The look is controversial of course. This is why we are especially happy about the authorization by involved property managers.

So obviously at least the bigger works were approved by the appropriate owners. I'm in doubt however, if this is true for all parts of this guerrilla marketing campaign.

I still find it sad to have this last part of the public space to be commercialized. I'm especially disturbed by streetart artists joining campaigns like these (if this is in fact true). They might destroy their own legitimation as a counter culture.

What do you think? Is this legitimate advertising? What is your opinion about streetart vs. advertising?

Tags:: streetart,; ogo,; marketing,; berlin

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¹⁾ The hardware is interesting, but the software isn't: MSN and ICQ only, no Jabber, no IRC. POP3 via push service, no IMAP.

Posted on Thursday, January the 17th 2008 (4 years ago).

Its a cool idea but I really dont think its all that legitimate.

2008-01-17 23:06:20

Mobile guy

This is indeed an interesting marketing tactic, but somehow i doubt wheter this will work out. I don't think that street art is recognized by the majority of the passing people, they tend to ignore it. Especially in big cities, like Berlin, there are already so many sprayed-on walls so specific images or advertisements won't get identified as easily.

Additionally, if this tactic turns out to be a new trend in marketing, street art will indeed loose it's charme. So those who still try to keep street art as an underground culture, will simply spray their tags and messages above the advertisements...

2008-01-18 12:49:42

xarumanx

I like this new form of advertising. Street art represents rebellion, "counterculture" as you put it. So it is a good way to connect to this generation.

2008-01-18 22:12:48

Leon

i don't think the ogo is a product made for the majority of (mostly) elderly people. i think the younger ones will see it. and i guess that's the peer- group.
i think street- art and "ads" will not mix up. i don't know, but i guess it's still illegal to spray sth on the wall, no matter which purpose it's for. so i think it'll stay something special.
btw: i like it. :)

2008-01-22 16:34:23

shyen

@Leon: The problem I see is that when advertising enters the realm of street art it becomes mainstream and looses its appeal as "rebellious".

@Shyen: Right, the target group is probably a bit younger than me. Still, I'm a huge fan of street art. I'd prefer to see the walls around me filled with creative, unique stuff instead of mass produced advertising.

2008-01-24 09:05:09

Andi