Exploiting Eyeballs!

Any article that describes misuse of an artist’s artwork gets my attention, as much as one about an artist who plagiarized his source (previous post on Shepard Fairey).

Evidently, this time it is the company American Eagle company that has clearly used the Miami street artist David Anasagasti’s, known as, Ahol Sniffs Glue, graffiti-style “eyeball artwork” for their latest ‘Street Beach’ ad campaign — but without giving him credit. Not good. On top of which, they imply he endorses their use by featuring a spray-can toting artist with the artwork that could indicate the artist’s approval. Only thing is their ‘idea of a graffiti artist’ is not even close to what he really looks like.

You can read more about the artist on this Culture Designers post.

American Eagle didn’t go lightly with the use either. They’ve just about plastered his Eyeball artwork everywhere they could think to do so for exploitation and benefiting their own products.  These pictures below from the Huffington Post show many of the examples used in the court case against American Eagle.

These pictures below were from the premier party during the Street Beach launch and also as a part of the court case against American Eagle. In fact, American Eagle actually hired other artists to recreate the Eyeball artwork for the event and branded it as their own. This is the worst — not only not asking permission but blatantly stealing.

I’m not one for liking all graffiti or street-style art but I like Ahol Sniffs Glue’s Eyeballs. They are iconographic to his work and style. He is one of Miami’s more popular muralists, well-known for his work.  He has sued the American Eagle company and I hope he wins. They could have simply just asked and compensated him for the use of his artwork. They probably could have gotten even better ads from exhibiting this common courtesy.

You can read more of the Huffington Post story here. Be sure to scroll down the page on the link to see other pictures of Miami’s street art. Until we find out how this case is decided, enjoy some of Ahol’s Eyeballs.

Interesting note about the above picture that I found on dogslobber’s Flickr page is that there is one comment that mentions that the artist has a “has a piece in nola [New Orleans] across from dat dog on Magazine street.” How about that, I now have another thing to scout out when I’m back home next.

The pictures below are from Smitten Studio by Sarah Sherman Samuel, who is a creative director and designer herself. She not only has some fabulous photos of more murals located in the Wynwood art district of Miami but she has a very cool product line that I discovered of artisanal goods from her Sunny Afternoon company, worth checking out. (I love when fortuitous happenstance happens through just simple search and discovery.) *

After I saw her post on a lace tunic top that she recently bought as a beach cover up at Chico’s (my mother’s favorite store), I’m looking into getting it for our upcoming beach vacation. What a great find!