The Cleaner Guerilla Advertisement

When perusing magazines these days often one will come across an advertising section that doesn't look so much like advertising. It may look almost as if it was another story written on assignment by a journalist for the magazine. These "advertorials" as they are called ride a fine line of journalistic integrity and are the subject of much controversy similar to that of product placement in motion pictures and modern literature. At least in magazines this is often taken care of by placing a small warning within the advertorial pages which states "This is a paid advertisement."

Guerrilla graffiti advertising is nothing new, but recently I came upon a particularly troubling example which begs for a disclaimer of its own. This advertisement for "The Cleaner" a new show coming out this fall, is almost indistinguishable from modern graffiti and street art in that there is no reference to the channel it is being broadcast on or any indication for that matter that it is a commercial endeavor. I've found that the employment of Graffiti artists to stencil advertisements is often obviously advertising. In this case one must learn to take care when enjoying what they thought was the work of a lonely artist because in fact it is an advertisement made to solicit ones interests.