Yes the Outdoor Advertising Association of
America had its big convention in San Francisco
and they couldnt keep their grubby hands off
the local culture. The OAAA logo swipes from
both Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.
The copy guys doctored the line "feed your
head" from the song "White Rabbit" for its
slogan. Then they took the Grateful Dead's
"Steal Your Face" logo-- the lightning bolt
through the skull--polished it up, put it on an
assembly line, and made it their own. Yes
advertisers can plunder the culture at will and
not pay for taking intellectual property.Because
they tweak what they steal just enough to
copyright it for themselves. Then they transform
the original message into something that better
fits their purposes. Here the message is "more
stimuli is good" Get everybody thinking the same
thing. Ads are more stuff for your head, man!
Cool man that's what the sixties were all about.
Jerry would be proud. But seriously don't the
Grateful Dead have decent lawyers? Couldn't
they take the OAAA to court? Because here the
OAAA pimped them out without their consent.
But in the "fine" art world, The San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art quite willfully got on its
knees for the outdoor advertising industry.