Crime wave

June 5, 2008 8:46 AM

Mysterious headless corpses found all over london, with most of the victims of the crime being celebrities or in the advertising industry. Close studies show that many of them share unusual anatomical features. Could this shadowy countercultural organisation be involved? Does this rare interview with aprominent underground figure hold any clues?
posted by Artw (23 comments total)

In more than one Adbusters issue I recall praise for a particular artist who did this sort of thing. I almost remember there being some sort of online template to print out your own headless pasties, so I wouldn't be surprised.
posted by tybeet at 8:49 AM on June 5

♪♫ Oh, the thigh bone's connected to the.... neck bone. ♫♪
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:50 AM on June 5

I kind of love the inappropriate use of a ball joint, like it's a bone sticking out of a ham or something.
posted by Artw at 8:50 AM on June 5

This ought to increase the awareness for the ad about 10 fold. I think Lisa Simpson had the only true antidote to neutralizing advertising.
posted by any major dude at 8:54 AM on June 5

I don't think you can be a shadowy countercultural anything if you've got a Flickr site.
posted by Jofus at 8:58 AM on June 5

My money's on the ad agency itself. A lot of it seems to rely on perfect alignment of the overlay, which would be a cinch for someone with the original photoshop files to work from.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:59 AM on June 5

would be a cinch for someone with the original photoshop files to work from.

Or anyone with a tape measure and a camera. :P
posted by cowbellemoo at 9:00 AM on June 5

Banksy's about as underground as Starbucks these days.
posted by rhymer at 9:01 AM on June 5 [2 favorites]

Yeah, the ball joint is excellent. I also am really digging the blood splatter on the people nearby in the photos. It's excellently at odds with the kind of cool indifference people normally wear in advertisements like this.
posted by quin at 9:01 AM on June 5

Double, though.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 9:01 AM on June 5

Have they found any without left feet? If they do could they call the Washington State Police right away please?
posted by Pollomacho at 9:02 AM on June 5

In the last article it appears that someone decided that hipster wankers needed to be photographed and photoshopped with the original stencils. That's so fucking stupid.
posted by stavrogin at 9:05 AM on June 5

I don't think you can be a shadowy countercultural anything if you've got a Flickr site.

Yeah, you have to be on TV...I mean radi...I mean you have to put up posters on teleph....hmmmm..

I guess you can only be shadowy and countercultural inside your own mind, squatting naked in a cave. If you use technology, you are The Man.
posted by DU at 9:05 AM on June 5

Thanks for the... heads up.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 9:05 AM on June 5

I really want to love adbusters, but their magazine (which I subscribed to for a while) was so annoying I dropped it. Can't we just work on ridding the streets (and air and clothing and websites) of ugly, annoying ads without bringing a bunch of airheaded nonsense and/or unrelated strident browbeating into it?
posted by DU at 9:08 AM on June 5

The second sentence I just wrote made no sense and I retract it. The first is still operative, though.
posted by DU at 9:10 AM on June 5

I love how Banksy grants one of his supposedly oh-so-rare interviews to a real hotbed of British radicalism and a bastion of defence for artistic freedom: the Daily Mail.

Maybe Banksy scrawled his name on Paul Dacre's backyard wall down in Notting Hill one night, and ever since he's been determined to try and maximize the value of his 'fine-art' freebie?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:19 AM on June 5

I have the same relationship with Adbusters. They have some great causes, but much of the magazine is just flag-waving and manifesto after manifesto. I get the feeling it's catered towards the teenage population who have rebellious feelings, and need a proper cause to latch onto.

There's always one or two articles in each magazine worth reading, which keeps me subscribed for now.
posted by tybeet at 9:19 AM on June 5 [1 favorite]

i haven't read the interview, so i don't know what the point is - now before you flame me for not having read the article, consider this - if i can't tell what the point is just by looking at the ads, how well are they making that point?
posted by pyramid termite at 9:22 AM on June 5

Described as Britain’s Andy Warhol, undercover graffiti guerrilla Banksy is not only our most important working artist, but one of the world’s most elusive criminals.

That's the stupidest fucking sentence I've read all day, on at least three levels.

The decapitations are good fun, though.
posted by jack_mo at 9:24 AM on June 5

In the last article it appears that someone decided that hipster wankers needed to be photographed and photoshopped with the original stencils. That's so fucking stupid.

I was wondering what was up with that. It was obnoxious and at odds with the art style.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 9:25 AM on June 5

Also, Banksy gave an exclusive interview to the Daily Mail? Eugh.
posted by jack_mo at 9:26 AM on June 5

Double, though.

Nuts.

hey, it's an update! Honest!
posted by Artw at 9:31 AM on June 5