Big Apple draws on past with revival of hand-painted street ads
NEW YORK — Once outdated relics in a digital world, painted advertisements are flourishing once again in New York, putting a dose of hip attitude into 21st century commercial art in the city that never sleeps.
Toiling under the blazing sun of a heat wave, Justin Odaffer puts the finishing touches to a Ray-Ban ad he has spent several days painting on the facade of an East Village building in downtown Manhattan.
For the past seven years, Odaffer — who has a degree in fine art — has painted ads on walls in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago for Colossal Media, which has risen from nowhere to become the leader in painted advertising.
“Basically we created a revival,” said Odaffer. Without the company he works for, he believes painted ads would be hanging “by a very thin thread”. Paul Lindahl, co-founder of Colossal Media, specialists in painted advertising
But setting up the company in 2004 was a leap of faith, admitted Paul Lindahl, co-founder of Colossal, which is based in Brooklyn’s hip hub of Williamsburg.
“Technology was taking over and there was really no need for hand painting at the time. Nobody cared,” said Lindahl, who comes from a family of Hungarian immigrants.
“It was expensive. It was slow,” he added. “I didn’t know if there was a future in it at that point. I just knew that I loved it.”
Thirteen years later, his company has 70 employees, paints 450 to 500 murals a year in major cities in the United States and is eyeing sales of $24 million in 2017.
Even though painted ads take longer and cost more, they offer advertisers a unique opportunity to set themselves apart.
Seeing painters in action can generate buzz on street corners.
“People are astonished,” said Odaffer. “That’s why this company has done so well. It’s because people can actually watch the process.”
That buzz carries over onto social media, fueled by photographs and videos which enhance brand visibility and advertising, said Lindahl.
“That brings value to what we do. What we realized along the way is yes, this thing takes longer than a digital ad or print ad, but that’s part of the benefit. It’s performance art. People stop and they wonder and they’re intrigued.”
But are commercial ads really art? Odaffer says definitely.
“It’s still the same process as other street art,” he said, adding that many of the painters started out in some form of street art.
“I see nothing wrong with it,” says graffiti artist BG 183, a member of the oldest New York graffiti collective that is still active, Tats Cru.
“The quality of the painting has improved a lot,” says Cockerill. “It stands out better than it has in the past. It makes them (advertisers) feel like it’s more of a hiplooking kind of ad.”
It’s performance art. People stop and they wonder and they’re intrigued.”