The graffiti "artist" arrested earlier this month for painting "Peace, Love, Linux" ads for IBM Corp. on Chicago sidewalks (XTRA, May 1) was sentenced last week to a year of supervision and 30 hours of community service.
IBM paid the city $18,000 to remove the ads, which were supposed to be done in chalk but were spray-painted instead. Ch'rewd Marketing & Promotion, Chicago, handled execution locally; Ogilvy & Mather, New York City, handles the Linux campaign. IBM had similar trouble in San Francisco. (Ads also appeared in Boston and New York City.) IBM apologized to Chicago officials and said it will discontinue the campaign.
The Chicago incident caused hallway buzz within the marketing community about whether graffiti ads are geographically sensitive - chalk ads play in Los Angeles, say, but are frowned upon in Chicago. Poor execution of this stunt could dim marketers' enthusiasm for similar campaigns, which have become so common in some cities that only a new medium - chocolate or cotton-candy spray, for example - would get consumers' attention.
