Obamessiah: Signs And Wonders
You remember these stickers?
Yeah, they used to go up in your tragically hip pockets of suburban anomie across the country. Whereever disaffected stoners and skaters would gather, they’d slap up those odd little Andre the Giant stickers. The guy who did them simplified them after a while and pared it down to just ol’ Andre’s face and the word OBEY underneath it. Because capitalism makes you a zombie, or something.
What you may not realize is that the guy behind that…er…neighborhood beautification project…is doing the artwork for the Obama campaign.
Shepard Fairey is his name, and Gerard Vanderleun has his number. It was an extremely odd choice to bring Fairey on board, but I can see why the Obamanites might reach out to him. This guy is tragically trendy, and he is a master of subversive propaganda. What Roy Liechtenstein did for comic books, Shep Fairey has done for advertising and political propaganda. He uses the conventions of the form and tweaks them, adds in a super-sized order of postmodern irony, giving you what at first looks like an advertisement or a poster, but really might mean nothing at all…or something else entirely. It’s clever, and hipsters love it because it messes with the squares but also subverts the capitalist paradigm and (what’s actually cool ) laughs at totalitarian, fascist-style Big Brotheresque propaganda. Plus he’s a moonbat.
But here’s the weird part: they didn’t bring Shep Fairey on to be ironic or to make little jokes at Obama’s expense. They brought him on to play it straight. They want him to churn out the propaganda without the wink, without the gag, without the absurdity. They want the pure splash of iconic dear-leader worship, which is why you get bold, strong-man posters for Obama that look like this:
That looks kind of cool, but in light of the weird Messianic hope-and-change cult of personality campaign that Obama’s been running, it’s frightening. We just don’t do the “ten foot tall picture of the leader” thing in America. We quite rightly associate that with some very un-American politics.
But don’t be alarmed; this story has a happy ending. Gerard busted out the photoshop and brought the irony back into Fairey’s neo-fascist Obama posters. Go back up to the first link and click. If you don’t have time to read the whole thing, at least scroll through the pictures to the last one and you’ll get his joke.
I hope he’s gonna make some T-Shirts off of that. I’d wear one.
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On a related note: everyone’s seen this, right? I think it’s some secret Hillarite getting in his anonymous, deniable digs:
Delicious. The Shep Fairey signs quite naturally make an appearance in there somewhere.
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Trackbacks
- Blatant Reality » Blog Archive » Obama's newest poster
- Marginalized Action Dinosaur » Obey Obama!
- What’s With The Dems’ Commie Style Posters? « Nice Deb
- Michelle Malkin » The LA Times looks into the Obama-Che iconcography connection
- Michelle Malkin » The Obamessiah’s deep humility shines through in his new seal
- Obamanation « Thepoliticalpage’s Weblog
- McCains, “No Brag Just Fact” « Riggword Weblog
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Andre’ the giant would not be happy
OH WHERE OH WHERE IS THE APPLE 1984 COMMERCIAL WHEN WE NEED IT???? OH YES, LET’S RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE UNTIL THE MACHINE THINKS LIKE US, THEN IT’S OKAY.
haha
Change what? How? Why?
Oh, I forgot. Don’t confuse them with details.
FYI… Shep Fairey started that lame Andre Posse propaganda from his high-rent, beach accessible studio in my hometown of Encinitas, CA back in ‘93. Now look what it’s parlayed into… A 3rd world, tin-horned dictator-goverened nation Pepsi billboard advertisement rip-off.
Isn’t it funny…(In a scary kind of way if you think about it)….
America…the greatest country to ever exist..and all these guys want to do is “Change”. Logic begs to question..if we are the greatest and they want to radically change…isn’t the only direction to change from the Greatest is to NOT be the greatest???
But then again.. Liberals want America to be a 3rd world sewer. That is their true goal.
I have been predicting this a long time. It started with Goresky and his hero-of-the-revolution poses for the Nobel commitee. Not surprising they have done the same with Obama. Look for propaganda regarding the economy and “change” to get white hot thru the election. Once the left is in complete control, miraculously, all will be sweetness and light. The Great Leader will lead us to Nirvana. Free Kool-Aid for all. Hey, I wonder if he can score five holes-in-one?
If Shepard Fairey (giggle, giggle) wanted his poster to be accurate, shouldn’t the caption have read: Chénge
BHO should be red-face over his pastors hate America sermons.
The only thing missing from the above poster is a tiny throng of smiling masses with hammers, pitchforks, and banners singing “hosanna!!!”
“Change” eh? He wants to take money away from productive folks and give it away to unproductive folks. How is that different from what they’re doing now?
Alright, alright. This Barack HUSSEIN oBOMBa crap has gone just about far enough. I’ve seen his ugly mug so often I see it in my dreams (Nightmares?)
I don’t know if I can make it until november to FINALLY get rid him.
Yeah, posters like that belong back in the Soviet Block.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPjVp3PLnVs and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khuu-RhOBDU
Take time to view both of these back to back. Can it get much uglier?
Seriously, people
Do you think Obama is over? Between the messiah-like hype, the anti-American pastor, his America-hating wife, and his complete lack of anything but empty rhetoric - could it be over?
I mean, even if he’s the nominee (which it looks like it will be) will his views turn him off to mainstream America?
God, I hope so.
…. or in North Korea today with Kim Jong-Il or his daddy, Kim Il-Sung.
Isn’t he supposed to be on Hannity and Colmes tonight? I hope so. He’ll get quite a grilling. No softballs coming his way!
This just increases the cult following of the Obamination. This guy is all style no substance (kind of Billy Jeff Clinton), but the Obey poster does scare the heck out of me. If he wins I will take Michelle Obama at her word that my life will change in horrible ways I can only imagine in my worst nightmares.
Jayzus! That Obama poster looks straight out of the Soviet Union!
Good God, do they realize they’ve let their masks slip?
How apropos that the left side of his face makes him look like a communist leader.
Creepy!
Dang, #18, you’re two minutes ahead of me
The “Pastor” video has been played thousands of times over and over,,,,,
between that preacher moment and his wife….. oblahma might as well concede, its over and yes the fat lady is singing. and it aint gospel music.
R.U.I.N.E.D.
Huh? I don’t get it.
Taking issue with ’style’? OK, the art work recalls a certain genre. Does that mean Sen Obama shares the ’substance’ of what others who used this ’style’ professed?
Oh yeah, that ‘Rolling Stone’ cover is another thing. It has a certain style, too. Does that mean his substance is consistent with Saints? Give me a break. There are things to take serious and things that are fun.
I like fun and appreciate that we, as Americans, can have fun with our politics with out going to crazy.
Not to mention the fact that anyone who has been to the grocery store in the last week can’t have missed the cover of National Enquirer. They have uncovered that Obama was best friends with a terrorist. Every person in line has seen this cover.
Obama is a hard core communist/Islamist, and the facts are finally coming to light.
I don’t think he could possibly beat McCain.
I like the mushroom cloud nose on poster.
LGM lost another friend
That “change” poster gave me the creeps. It’s little different in style from photos I’ve seen of old Nazi posters, such as one showing Hitler with the same grim expression, or another with a teutonic-looking guy in a brown shirt over a slogan like, “Der Deutsche student kampft fur Fuhrer und Volk.”
This whole false-Messiah cult of personality has gone over the edge and is now in free-fall. It’s alarming that so many Americans are allowing themselves to simply be swept off their feet in a wave of unthinking emotion, just like so many Germans were in the 1930s.
Why is it that I can envision without any suspension of disbelief an Obama campaign event along the lines of the Nuremberg rallies, complete with hysterical, screaming, fainting women and ranks of mindless donkey zombies marching in torchlight parade formations?
If this is a photoshop contest, my entry is here.
I opt for 30’s style soviet-realism as the best description of the BHO poster. So grim and garish, it would seem to lead naturally to posters of obese, tractor-driving women dressed in pink overalls, determinedly harvesting grain for the nation’s booming ethanol plants. There is no end to the fun one could have with this — should humor ever be part of the Obamaite’s world view.
As for BHO himself, he may well have peaked, but at such a high-level it will still be enough to carry him over the top. Moreover, even if he fails this year, he seems inevitable for at least two more runs for the presidency.
Anyone for an 84-year old President McCain?
Several communist leaders called, they want their portraits back.
They’ve filed for copyright infringement.
As much as we all joke about this fawning, ignorant support for Obama, it honestly scares me.
the way the colors are in the Obama picture, I think I can put on some 3-D specs and see it sticking out on the screen..
What does Obama want me to change into?
at least the poster sums up all of BHO’s substance of his campaign.. ‘change’.
….
I think the picture has been framed in.. if you pull back the frames, it says; “If you want a change to a bigger, more socialistic government, vote for me. I’ll bring in collectivism in so fast it will make Hillery’s head spin”
Regulus has it on target.
This Obama “phenomenon” seems to hold all of the identity tags of the same Cult that put Hitler in power.
Change alone without substance is not good. The change that Obama is selling holds disasterous results.
Ann Althouse mentioned she was walking in Madison WI before Obama’s appearance, and she heard some students remark, upon seeing his iconic portraits all over the place, “It looks like a Saddam poster.”
Yup.
Fairey has dabbled in presidential logos before, demonstrating how he really feels about America and the office of President. I guess his first draft didn’t make it past Obama’s Secretary of Propaganda.
http://www.jonathanlevinegallery.com/?method=Art.Detail&ArtistID=F65EBB86-3048-28EB-92D55AA4FC996E31&ArtID=2C503F09-19DB-5802-E08FD055A6FD42DB&artidx=72
The bulk of Fairey’s work is anarchist, skater punk, One World Government, USA is to blame for the world’s evils, Bush is Satan fare. It all is based off of Russian Socialist Realism, or even more recently North Korean propaganda posters (usually anti-US of course). For those who pay attention, it demonstates once again the quality and persuasion of man that Obama seems instinctively drawn to, whethor it be his “politics as religion” pastor Wright, his “politics through terror (and then education) trust fund bomber friend Ayers, and now his “politics through illustration” choice for a graphic artist.
This kind of stylized, iconic imagery of the Grand Leaders of many a facist or socialist regime have been used before, and when viewed through the lens of history, the ideology behind the propaganda has always been a Hell paved with good intentions.
Obama should have just gone here and saved the cost of hiring Fairey:
http://db1.maopost.com/wcat=mao&wlan=en&wreq=maoartpre