The Kultcha of Electric Moyo

Nike tried the same thing in Toronto by financing a gallery/performance space called Presto. Of course sensible hipsters boycotted it. Personally, I applaud corporate arts funding, as long as they are straight-up about it, take an arm's-length approach, and don't try to "cool" their company by association with the Latest Thing. Urban hip-hop hipsterism and the Nissan-frickin'-Altima, the most boring, white-bread suburban car in the known universe? We don't need any more cars in our cities! Nissan should produce a nice electric scooter or even a tricked-out urban road bicycle if they want to get my dollar...

Ouch! - Is it just my laptop or does the electric moyo site play a LOUD continuois 'static' sound (song?) when it loads? I nearly jumped out of my seat and ripped off my headphones. I quickly clicked the site closed as fast as I could!

Um, I think it did -- or, rather, it will -- backfire on them. Did you read some of this copy?

"These works of artistic messaging would not have been possible without Nissan's permission,"

"The message of Electric MOYO is not about vandalism and does not promote it."

"...keep it legal."

"... I decided to leave the ordinary way of living behind, a world where uncertainty and fear seem normal or everyday. 'Forget that', I said."

Such language! Anyone with half a brain will see right through this massaged corporate-speak, and it's not like Nissan is sponsoring an art exhibition -- they're co-opting street culture to sell cars. The only authentic part of this site is that not all the links work.

I completely agree with Paul's statements. They are co-opting a style for commercial gain. (and the copy is horrible). I can see the ad-man now pitching this..."it will be from the street...Cool, hip, exciting...fo shizzle, my nizzle".

How about a photo of the faux-tagged advertisement? I'm curious to see what corporate advertising execs think underground art looks like.

This is repetitive. On first glance it's much like the IBM Linux fiasco - spray painted logos appearing in cities, only they had to pay to clean it up. Co-opting "hip" cuilture for advertising is as old as the medium itself. See Tom Frank's Conquest of Cool, and not Naomi Klein's No Logo.

I don't think that the faux-guerilla advertising will necessarily work, but it's an interesting concept. At this point, I think that even sincere attempts at sincerity by advertisers will seem false - with all the research performed to learn more about target markets, it's the under-researched ideas that seem most genuine. This concept, though, reminds me a bit of Photoshop Tennis, and I would love to see more companies "recycling" ads by layering new concepts on top of old - if just for the design concept. :)

(By the way, I'd love to see some photos of these advertisements!)

It's still boring corporate marketing. OKay, maybe it gets you to the site for a second, but once I saw it was for the car, I knew it was an ad and said, "BLAH!!!!!!!"

I'm sure that by writing this post...I'm falling head-first into their master plan

Especially when you show up at the office tomorrow in your new Nissan Altima

This is all reminiscent of the BMW Films advertising project.

Yes but at least with the BMW films project they were done well (at least the first generation anyway).

This reeks of amateurism.

and after all that marketing the car still looks like shit.

Speaking of interesting advertising, have you seen the fantastic Mini ad in the recent New Yorker? There's a small pic of it here.

Here in San Diego we have billboards for a country radio station that have been faux-tagged over with the radio call sign/frequency for an "edgier" alternative station, both of course owned by the same media giant. Same sort of idea I guess...

Shepard Fairey, the man responsible for the Obey experiment has worked in the past with Pepsi, Coke, etc. doing guerilla advertising. His work originated as an idea that he willingly co-opted to these companies, whereas Nissan's version seems to be a wholly fabricated and pre-meditated process, start to finish.

Sure it's a great idea, but it was a great idea the first time it was done.

part of what is so boring bout this campaign is the content. if i see an image of another turntable or spearkes in ads i am going to throw up. this was clever 20 years ago as was grafitti bombing. boring. get over it. lets move on past hip hop ast a marketing tool. or stay there while everyone else moves on. boring bland and not fooling anyone.

And exactly what BE said. It was fresh the first time around. now it is just monkey see monkey do.

And exactly what BE said. It was fresh the first time around. now it is just monkey see monkey do.

Re: the BMW movies:
Total agreement with Paul, they were done with the highest quality in mind. I knew it was a commercial, but I didn't mind going along for the ride because 1. the films were entertaining and engaging and 2. BMW's are excellent automobiles (sort of actors in the film series, even) and worthy of the hoopla, I guess.

Seeing the Moyo stuff...meh. Agree with you peeps, yo!

Stv. already posted to the link on my site re the Mini ad in the New Yorker: a completely different concept to the faux urban geurilla thing you're talking about here, but an interesting and new-to-me experiment in advertising. I'm just pleased and surprised that advertisers are actually trying new things. Some don't make the grade, like Nissan, but maybe someone will take this concept, a la Photoshop tennis and actually make something interesting out of it.

Self-referential irony in corporate ad campaigns is nothing new, and neither is gentrified youth culture. Don't worry too much about "falling head-first into their master plan," because I'd be surprised if the current Nissan campaign opens the wallets of any customers they wouldn't have been able to entice with any other campaign.

Boxfresh a "hip" " urban" clothing company did something similar here in Manchester (UK) a couple
of years ago, it was a little more extreme though.
They stenciled the statememt "we are you" (in regular spraypaint) along with their logo and occasionally there name all over the city walls, bus shelters etc,
I still don't know how they got away with it, maybe they were fined by the authorites, but I suppose the cost of the fine would be significantly cheaper than a full on bill board campaign. Or they denied all knowledge: boxfresh marketing man "Yeah we're so down with the kids that they actually want to spray our logo all over town"
Which I suppose is'nt all that far fetched, people getting the NIKE Swoosh tatoo etc.

Just found some info on that campaign.

It's not so Boxfresh

CLOTHING COMPANY Boxfresh has come a cropper. It launched a snide advertising campaign recently. Boxfresh used imagery and slogans from the Zapatista rebel group in Mexico. They were spraypainted on walls around major shopping areas in central London and passed as convincing propaganda from Zapatista supporters (until you got to the Boxfresh logo).

One group of activists were so incensed by this blatant ripoff of a struggle for the rights of indigenous people in Mexico that they launched a campaign against the company. They counter-graffitied and finally dressed up as Zapatista guerrillas and leafleted customers at the shop.

The panicked company met the protesters and agreed to:

Hand over any future profit from the Zapatista merchandise to the Zapatistas themselves.
Install a computer in the shop with access to Zapatista and anti-capitalist websites.
Take their logo off the spraypainted speeches by Zapatista leader Marcos.
Put leaflets in the shop explaining the history of the Zapatistas.

Well, I will give it to them that it is a clever campaign. I mean we are talking about it so.. thats worth more than the cars driving in crisp fall air. However after going to the site, the campaign feels more like the Coke's latest "REAL" advertisements. This site looks like "Real, Real, Real, Real, Keep it Real, Real, Real" Sounds. Its like I can hear the brand manager saying to the creative team "make it more urban... but can we keep the picture of the car... and do you have any poetry... you know I want rhymes"

Interesting thoughts on new aggressive marketing tactics here and here.

An even better take on X-Treme marketing

On a related - and just as sad - note I noticed this morning that a large billboard on my commute (Atlanta as well) appeared to have been covered by a cloth that reads: "100 bucks says you'll like a Mitsubishi better". The ad underneath looks like a 'traditional' car ad, but the whole thing is one piece. Why does it seem like bad ideas spread faster than good ones sometimes?

the Wooster Collective, a fine street art site has been having a discussion on the electric moyo for a week or two now. See this post for the original pictures and comment. Personally, I think it's laughable.

I'm so glad to happen on this discussion. Nissan had horrid posters up on a wall near my house. Fake gen-xers spouting fake inspirational thoughts like "an island of calm in a sea of freak-outs." I kept thinking, I wish someone would vandalize this.
Then someone did, or so I thought. Till I found out it was just Electric Moyo PRETENDING to vandalize. Sickening hypocritical pretense #1: if she's against vandalism, why is she trying to capitalize on people's love of vandalism by imitating it? The only thing that intrests people in her fake vandalism and piracy is that they think it's real, that it's really violating corporate property rights. Sickening pretense #2: "Thank Nissan for their permission..." The whole problem piracy and grafitti and hacking are confronting is having to ASK corporations for PERMISSION to excercize "Free" speech.

That's my big problem with Electric Moyo: not just that she's a thief, but that her theft defeats the authentic and laudable purpose of the thing she's stealing ... and the people she's stealing from and trying to sell it back to!

first let me say that I very much agree with most of the concerns on this page, but i'm going to tell you something you may not know: These are NOT Nissan's 'fake' words. These are the actual words of the "poet"/"free spirit" Nissan's ad agency hired to be the spokes woman for this campaign. they'r letting her run the copy and the website is supposed to be in the first person--that person being her. Though her ideals are all well and good, her writing kinda sux and I think Nissan or their agency True--a spinoff of TBWA--should have chosen someone else and chosen more carefully. I do think, however, that Nissan and their mulitcultural specializing agency True are sincere in their desire to attract the audience they've got in mind. They should be granted a semblance of respect for simply respecting the audience itself: The audience respects and enjoys art, music, culture, etc. I for one think that Nissan deserves a little respect for trying to cater to an audience that most companies shun exclaiming, "we don't want their business."

just remeber art and society are linked together so is art and consumerism thats why art is made to reflect ones views on society and then you agree than buy it or support in some way. this is how culture in america has always operated and so have its ranging sub-cultures. this is just an after thought of whuts in art now.

I read all your comments and I do agree, the concept is cool but the execution is amatuer. As far as Brian's comment I know for a fact that this stuff isn't written by the Moyo chick, it all conjured by the writer hired by True, which by irony, Mason, is the same writer you wrote the Coke "Real" stuff.