Words by Chris Mace

October 2004

All those blank silhouettes dancing before pink, teal, lime, and eggshell blue backgrounds have become at least as iconic as the status-packed object itself. And they have taken on meaning beyond whatever the sexy, omni-hip individuals outlined in them are intended to represent.

Black magic marker-wielding pedestrians have been attracted to the banks of posters like bees to colorful flowers, turning blocks of them into a short-lived bathroom wall forum.

Laura Conaway, writing in the Village Voice, quoted one graffito's declarations: "The ‘i' stands for isolation." On other posters, it stood for impolite, insurrection, invisible, and "I want," which despite some praise prompted someone else to flatly write, "You're an ‘i'diot."

Another artist mimicked the emblematic ads to redirect attention to more pressing concerns. The New York Times ran an image taken on a Manhattan subway platform of side-by-side "iRaq" posters mimicking the iPod® ads so well that at the very least, it is hard not to appreciate their craftsmanship. The unmistakable silhouette of the cloaked and hooded Abu Ghraib prisoner stands on a box before the same backgrounds used in the iPod ads, with white wires attached to his fingers rather than "bud" headphones coming from his ears.

To some, the bud headphones are a fashionable accessory that might indicate taste, income level, or even background. Others find them an all too obvious vie for attention. For "logo-phobics", they are scary. Still, those who are carefully modest might opt for inconspicuous black headphones, also a safety precaution in certain areas at the wrong time of night.

Apple's outdoor advertising has attracted graffiti critical of its maintenance policies as well. Before it offered a $99 battery replacement service, the artist Casey Neistat took his dead iPod to the Apple store in SoHo, only to be told that he might as well buy a new one because of the amount it would cost to fix it. Not satisfied, he sent his dead iPod to Apple's executive offices addressed to Steve Jobs, requesting a new battery and explaining the situation. Apple responded with the same message as the SoHo store, telling him to buy a new one.

That prompted Casey and his brother Van, also an artist, to make "iPod's Dirty Secret," a short video made in iMovie® on an iMac®, showing the brothers stenciling a public service message: "iPod's unreplaceable battery lasts only 18 months," on blocks of the loud ads in busy sections of downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. The soundtrack kicks in with the rap group NWA's "Express Yourself," and a young Ice Cube announcing: "There's a lot of brothers out there flakin' and perpetratin' but scared to kick reality."

The movie can still be viewed online at www.ipodsdirtysecret.com where the site's traffic counter indicates it has been viewed well over a million times.