Submitted by Andrew Boyd of Agit-Pop.com:

In January, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations can spend unlimited $$ in our elections. In July, Target gave $150,000 to the anti-gay, anti-worker candidate for Gov. of MN. Last week, a quarter million people pledged to boycott Target.

Yesterday . . .

Learn more — Take Action — Sign the Petition at www.targetboycott.org

Submitted by Josh Jaspers:

Urban fox hunt video was hoax aimed at the media, say film-makers
by Paul Lewis
Guardian.co.uk
6 August 2010

Chris Atkins explains how he hoaxed the press into printing stories about urban fox hunters.

It was the internet video that sparked a media outcry: grainy footage that seemed to show four masked men drugging a fox and later beating it to death with cricket bats in a London park that was posted on YouTube and Facebook earlier this week.

But the Guardian can reveal that the new sport of “urban foxhunting” was an elaborate hoax. The film-makers, Chris Atkins and Johnny Howorth, said no real foxes were harmed in the film, which was intended as a satirical swipe at “media hysteria” over the danger of urban foxes.

Animal rights campaigners had expressed fury over the “bloodthirsty” huntsmen, eliciting the support of MPs on Twitter and prompting an inquiry by the Metropolitan police’s wildlife crime unit.

YouTube and Facebook removed the footage and the controversy was covered in news outlets including the Guardian, the Times, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail. The BBC was also duped, sending a reporter to Victoria Park, Hackney – the supposed scene of the crime. Amid a growing furore, the animal welfare group League Against Cruel Sports launched a campaign against urban foxhunting, while the RSPCA said it was investigating. (more…)

John Callahan, Cartoonist, Dies at 59
by Bruce Weber
The New York Times
July 28, 2010

John Callahan, a quadriplegic, alcoholic cartoonist whose work in newspapers and magazines made irreverent, impolitic sport of both people with disabilities and diseases and those who would pity and condescend to them, died Saturday in Portland, Ore. He was 59 and lived in Portland.

The causes were complications of quadriplegia and respiratory problems, said his brother Tom.

Like his friend Gary Larson, the creator of “The Far Side,” Mr. Callahan made drawings with a gleeful appreciation of the macabre as it exists in everyday life. He was, however, a man who lived his whole life with disadvantages, some of them self-wrought, and he viewed the world through a dark and wicked lens.

“This is John, I’m a little too depressed to take your call today,” the message on his answering machine said. “Please leave your message at the gunshot.”

Bemused by the culture of confession and self-help fostered by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Geraldo Rivera and others, he was uninclined, in his work, to be outwardly sympathetic to the afflicted or to respect the boundaries of racial and ethnic stereotyping, and his cartoons were often polarizing: some found them outrageously funny, others outrageously offensive.

July 19, 2010 Updates:

Twitter Communiques From Fake French Foreign Ministry on Haiti Hoax
by Robert Mackey
The Lede Blog, NY Times
July 16, 2010

A group calling itself The Committee for the Immediate Reimbursement of Funds Taken From Haiti took credit on Friday for an elaborate hoax carried out this week in which an actor pretending to be a spokesperson for the French government announced that France would reimburse Haiti money it was forced to pay in exchange for its independence in the nineteenth century.

As The Lede explained on Thursday, the fake announcement was posted on a near replica of the French foreign ministry’s Web site on Wednesday in both video and text form.

In an update posted on a Twitter feed established this week, in the guise of France’s foreign ministry, the group, using the French form of its name, announced:

(more…)

Submitted by artist Stephen Barnwell:

Bailout for America
Artist Gives $535 Trillion to Stimulate Economy

[New York, NY] In light of these desperate economic times, New York-based artist Stephen Barnwell has given the United States of America an aid package worth an estimated $535 Trillion. On July 4th, this massive stimulus package was given directly to Congress with each and every US Senator and Representative receiving his or her own One Trillion banknote. It is Barnwell’s intention that they will serve as constant reminders of the true value of a trillion dollars, and of where our nation’s money is coming from. (more…)

Submitted by Andrew Boyd of Agit-Pop:

People generally find it notable when the Founding Fathers show up at your rallies.

And when Agit-Pop and the Campaign for Fair Elections sent Benjamin Franklin and friends to razz BP’s major lobbying firm, the Washington Post stood up and took notice.

In one of the cooler Agit-Pop actions in a while, the framers stood guard at the biggest fundraising hot spots in DC – and caught more than a few Congressmen taking their cues from Big Money, getting major press attention along the way.

Take part in more delicious Fair Elections Now hijinks – learn about July 4th events happening in your community.

- Andrew Boyd, Chairman of the Blurb, & John Sellers, Chief Existential Officer, Agit-Pop

photo: Fair Elections Now

Czech art guerrillas face police investigation over new project
Earth Times News
German Press Agency (DPA)
June 18, 2010

Prague – Czech art pranksters, whose Ztohoven art collective gained international notoriety for implanting images of a fictional atomic blast on live television, face legal action for their latest prank.

Police on Friday launched an investigation into the group’s latest project, during which 12 guerrilla artists lived for months under each other’s identity.

The action aimed to draw the attention to the omnipresent Big-Brother-like control of the public by authorities.

The artists applied for new identity cards with computer-altered photographs that combined features of two members of the group – the man who would use the card and the man in whose name it was issued. (more…)

Submitted by Kate McCamy:

Why Russian Art Group Voina ‘Dicked” a St. Petersburg Bridge
AnimalNewYork.com
June 16, 2010:

… St Petersburg’s renegade art-group of political pranksters – Voina (War) – turned a historic bridge into one giant “Fuck You!” to the Russian federal agencies. Here’s how they pulled it off.

Over the years, Voina staged many actions: police station take-overs, anti-homophobic faux-lynchings in malls, stray cat throwing into swanky restaurants, anti-Medvedev public orgies and all kinds of ruckus. Their most recent target: the headquarters of FSB, the offices of Russia’s KGB incarnate Federal Security Service. Our source: Voina themselves. (more…)

UPDATE June 7, 2010: Israel Apologizes For Circulating Spoof Video Mocking Gaza Flotilla, Huffington Post

Three points of view, submitted by Toni Dalton, from LatmaTV, June 3, 2010:

The Gaza Flotilla participants explain how they can con the world – http://www.facebook.com/latma.co.il

Also from Toni, from salon.com:

How Israeli propaganda shaped U.S. media coverage of the flotilla attack by Glenn Greenwald

And from ZSpace:

Kill A Turk And Rest, by Uri Avnery

From logomyway.com:

Help Redesign BP’s logo! They need a NEW Brand…

The design community and the general public will vote on the winner of the redesign of the new BP logo. Our design will be used on: Web, Print Media, Billboard & Sign, Television, Mugs & Tshirts

You can find BP’s current logo here. Visit logomyway.com more details and to see more entries.

designs:
#194 by dclose
#175 by JohnEkdahl
#16 by arm

Tobias Wong, Witty Designer and Conceptual Artist, Dies at 35
by William Grimes
June 2, 2010

Tobias Wong, a designer whose outrageous sendups of luxury goods and witty expropriation of work by other designers blurred the line between conceptual art and design, died on Sunday at his home in Manhattan. He was 35.

The office of the chief medical examiner in Manhattan ruled the death a suicide.

Mr. Wong first came to the attention of the design press in 2001 when he turned a Philippe Starck Bubble Club chair into a lamp, softly glowing from within. Adding spice to the stunt, “This Is a Lamp” was shown the night before the actual Starck chair was presented to the public for the first time.

A provocateur by nature, Mr. Wong operated at the fringes of the traditional design world, creating objects like a stack of 100 $1 bills, bound in peelable glue like a notepad; a gold-plated McDonalds coffee stirrer (a riff on the company’s plastic version that was apparently popular among drug users before being withdrawn); and an engagement ring with the diamond mounted upside down, so that the wearer could use it to scratch graffiti.

“As time went on his work became more and more ironic, sarcastic and pointed,” said Paola Antonelli, senior curator in the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Architecture and Design. “He had an enfant terrible style of design that was very fresh in New York. Today you see all sorts of people doing conceptual design, but he was one of the first.” (more…)

Submitted by Larry Croft:

As seen on urbanvelo.org:

Mimosa Pale, an artist from Finland, invites her fellow citizens to climb into her vagina-themed bike taxi. Her intention is to protest the world’s fascination with phallic objects, and so three times a week she hits the streets of Helsinki.

Read the whole story at www.jalopnik.com

From Zubi Nation in response to the new Arizona immigration law:

It’s Time for a Gringo Mask!
by Andres Ordonez/Johnathan Jauregui

While science, technology and human development make progress, our thinking goes backwards. That is why, today we have decided to be part of what is happening in Arizona and to support our Hispanic brothers and sisters. This action is congruent with our philosophy of erasing stereotypes and we would love for this movement, Gringo Mask, to spread.

The objective of this action is to dignify and support the Hispanic community, with the firm intention of taking it to the street and confronting Arizona’s statute SB 1070.

Proud of where we come from, of what we are, and what we do for this country, let’s go out to the street and erase these stereotypes.

Go ahead, put on the Gringo Mask [female/male] and let others see you.

From The Yes Men, April 19, 2010:

Dow Throws a Dismal Party, Few Attend

On Sunday April 18th, 2010, Dow Chemical sponsored the “Dow Run For Water” in cities around the globe. The event was shut down in London and Stockholm due to protests, but not in New York, where protesters were faced by an army of Yes Men posing as Dow Chemical public relations spokespeople.

More information and images here and here.

MTA: Texty Subway Ads Unsuitable for Display
1010WINS
March 31, 2010

New York (1010 WINS) — A new subway ad campaign against fare hikes – featuring suggestive acronyms ‘WTF?’ and ‘OMFG’ – has been banned by the MTA.

The posters, conceived by the Working Families Party, are almost exact replicas of official service-change bulletins frequently found on subway station platforms. (more…)