G-Talk

(via nymag.com: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/02/poster_boy.html)

On February 10, the Museum of Modern Art launched one of its most extensive and expensive advertising campaigns in history when it reproduced 57 works from its permanent collection and plastered the images around Brooklyn’s Atlantic-Pacific subway station. Then, this past Saturday night around 2 a.m., the installation was ambushed by two men. One was Poster Boy, or at least someone from his collective, a member of which was arrested earlier this month on criminal-mischief and misdemeanor charges. His accomplice was a less likely culprit: Doug Jaeger, the marketing executive who created the campaign for MoMA. Jaeger is CEO of the brand-management agency the Happy Corp and president of the prestigious Art Directors Club.

Wearing official MoMA jackets, the two convinced the MTA guards and station police that they were there on official business. Poster Boy and his crew then proceeded to mash up the reproductions in traditional PB-style, meaning Andy Warhol’s Marilyn was made to look as though she had a nose job, and a cutout of a race car was positioned to dive into another painting. When they were done, Jaeger staged a fashion shoot in front of Poster Boy’s reworked creations, using hired models and a professional photographer (the above model’s face is pixelated — says Jaeger, who hopes to sell the images at some point — because he doesn’t have permission to use his/her likeness without consent).

“Early on we saw Poster Boy’s work, and we realized it was inevitable that if we did this project, his crew would likely see it as an opportunity. Whenever you create something, you want to make sure you’re prepared for that,” Jaeger says. “What I would hope is that it would cause debate and generate some argument, at a minimum.”

MoMA is probably less than pleased with the vandalism of its ambitious advertising campaign by the individual they paid to create it. The museum had purchased all of the advertising space in the station, in what the MTA calls a “station domination.” The campaign was scheduled to last six weeks. Yesterday afternoon, though, CBS Outdoor, the billboard-advertising company that installed the works, removed two of the works: “I can confirm for you that the vandalized ads were taken down [Monday] by CBS Outdoor and will be replaced by Wednesday,” said Kim Mitchel, the head of MOMA’s communications department. “Beyond that, MoMA will have no comment.”

Jaeger says he’s nervous about the museum’s response, but stands by his actions. “I don’t know if they like for me to be saluting it,” he says of Poster Boy’s work. “But if someone who is getting acclaim as an artist does something to your campaign, does it make it less valuable or more valuable?”

Update: MoMA Denies Being Complicit With Poster Boy 

(Via Creativity:http://creativity-online.com/?action=news:article&newsId=135008)

On Friday, MoMA severed all ties with happycorp and its founder Doug Jaeger after his involvement in the vandalism of the museum’s Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street subway station installation—an exhibit he and his shop were paid to create.

On February 10, New York’s Museum of Modern Art and happycorp unveiled a campaign that replaced ads in the Brooklyn station with posters of art from the museum’s permanent collection. Less than two weeks later, the installation was vandalized in the style of ad remix artist Poster Boy. On Saturday, February 21 at 2 a.m., the art posters were cut, rearranged and affixed with new images to create such mash-ups as Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe with clunky gray headgear and a race car diving into Monet’s water lily pond. There was also a 3D neon box inside cut-up MoMA signage, which resembles the work of street artist Aakash Nihalani.

By the following Tuesday, New York magazine published a story in which Jaeger recounts his role in the vandalism with a member of the Poster Boy collective. After the Poster Boy finished modifying the posters, Jaeger tells New York he staged a fashion shoot with a professional photographer and models in front of the vandalized posters, and that he hopes to eventually sell those photos.

Jaeger, who was not available for comment on this story, later told Gothamist: “I was in the subway that night for sure. It was clear to me that night that Poster Boy is not one person. I think that NYMag makes it sound like I know them—I met them, but I don’t know them.”

MoMA denies any involvement with the stunt.

“We ended all work to be done by Doug Jaeger and thehappycorpglobal on this project and all others, and have completely severed our relationship with the company,” says Kim Mitchell, MoMA’s director of communications, advertising and graphics, in a statement. “The museum deplores any kind of vandalism and is profoundly distressed that the posters were defaced. The images that were damaged have been replaced.”

Jaeger also served on the museum’s marketing advisory committee with the likes of Paula Scher, Gerry Graf and 2x4 cofounder Michael Rock. He was recently inducted as president of the Art Director Club. The ADC was also not available for comment.