Melbourne ad agency apologises for ‘ignorance’ in painting over Sydney mural to advertise new movie
Melbourne advertising agency Apparition Media has apologised for painting over a Newtown mural to advertise the new drama movie ‘Mother! starring Jennifer Lawrence.
Posting on Facebook yesterday, the ad agency wanted to “just start by saying we’re sorry to you all and you’ve been heard loud and clear”.
The ‘It’s like a jungle sometimes’ mural was painted over by the agency without permission from the Inner West Council, with the council commenting on Apparition Media’s Instagram, “Unfortunately Apparition Media also painted this mural over a much-loved, iconic public artwork in Newtown on the weekend: “it’s like a jungle sometimes”. Council did not approve the advertisement, and the display of advertisements is prohibited in heritage areas. The matter is now being investigated by Council’s Compliance Section”.
The mural located on the corner of Bailey street and Enmore road was originally painted by Colin Bebe .
According to the post, Apparition Media and Bebe will be collaborating to create a new mural.
“He has asked that we collaborate on the new mural and become part of the story. It shows the mark of the man that despite us painting over the mural without approaching him first and despite the public outcry from you all, he wants our team member to tell the story of her brother within the new artwork – in his words “This is all just another chapter in the story of this mural”.
“We have expressed our regret for painting over it and apologised for our ignorance.”
Apparition yesterday announced they had donated their paints and a Melbourne Central advertising wall to the Rainbow Warriors campaign with a giant rainbow YES mural being painted to support the pro same sex marriage campaign.
Co-founder David Lee Pereira also called on other Melbourne businesses to donate their walls to be painted rainbow ahead of the same sex marriage postal vote.
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No permission from the council and no consultation with the community over a piece of public art being covered by an ad!! Unprofessional, incompetent, disrespectful or arrogant – it’s at least one of these, probably all. Thanks for giving the public another good reason to hate adland…
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Is how Apparition are painting ads on the side of walls without any council permission. Is this how they usually operate – illegally? Seems like a very inexperienced media company, and no guarantee that any of client’s media spend will be guaranteed to stay in a location for any amount of time.
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An unfortunate and ill thought through execution no doubt. It has to be noted, however, the apology and the efforts to make good on the mistake are near faultless.
Bad things happen, how we recover is the important thing. I think this is a good recovery and hopefully will result in a suitable replacement and some other good outcomes.
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grateful it wasn’t the ‘I had a dream..’ mural in King St..
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I thought “turd girl” that got stuck between two windows trying chuck a turd from a date’s broken toilet would hold the title most gobsmacking thing I’ve read for some time. I was wrong, it wasn’t even 24 hours… Congrats Apparition!
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…not to mention illegal and a breach of the original artist’s copyright.
Ignorance of the law is not a defence. I hope they get slapped big time for this.
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It’s vandalism, not advertising or even remotely creative.
Another example of the industry’s breathtaking stupidity and disconnect from reality.
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Sounds very much like a case of do it now and ask forgiveness later. Totally unprofessional, imagine if a Sydney agency went into Fitzroy and did this. Pleading ignorance is no excuse – you work in this area, as do we – you know the rules.
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will clients get a refund when the real graffiti artists come and trash the murals in the revolt?
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One to add to the blacklist. Really poor form, guys!
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Disturbing for potential clients that there wasn’t one sensible person on the team able to point out the obvious likely outcome. Hmm..perhaps there is such a thing as bad publicity.
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Buried in the percussive headdesk of this story is a nugget of gold. The graceful response of the original artist, Colin Bebe. Be like Colin.
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What idiot client thought this was a good idea.
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Not cool! How could anyone have thought it’d be OK to paint over someone’s art work with an ad? No artist permission. No community permission. Entitlement to the extreme!
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What a very disgraceful act .
They can come and paint my walls at home if they need somewhere to paint >
Advertising signage of any description needs to be approved by Local Authorities …… very basic ….. been that way for what ???? Decades.!
Who ever hired this crowd should really take a long hard look at the way they not only spend their Advertising Budget ….. but also the people / staff involved in that determination .
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