Culture Jamming …without Consent
Experience Project
March 24, 2011
Bankers are Bankers
When British bank Barclays PLC agreed to shell out £25 million ($39 million) to sponsor London’s new public bike-rental program, it envisioned the marketing benefits of seeing its sky-blue logo draped on thousands of cycles around the city.
But Barclays’ prime marketing opportunity quite literally turned into a curse.
Londoners woke up Friday morning to find obscene stickers affixed to a number of the rental cycles. Attached to the bikes just above the bank’s logo, the decals delivered a one-word message that, combined with the bank’s name underneath, succinctly conveyed many Britons’ anger toward the banking sector:
