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OUTRAGE: Burger King Studio & Have It Your Way Tees
Burger King has launched an artist apparel collaboration program. The title? Burger King Studio. The line? Have It Your Way Tees.
Yes. You heard me correctly…
Burger.
King.
Studio.
This is the bane of my existence. I suddenly remember all of my reasons for being vegetarian. Apparently, the mass production of beef product patties to feed the demand for arterial blockage exerted by an international audience determined to live and die as self-imagined decadent Western celebrities, is not enough. Apparently, providing the repulsively bloated teat upon which the commercial slaughter industry has suckled for decades, is not enough.
Seems that Burger King has decided that it’s time to redefine such inclusivity beyond double bypass and GMO animal feed. Burger King is now a DIY-street-art-inspired-urban-fresh-skate-culture-alt-sub-hip-
independent-and-did-I-mention-DIY art community, bringing DIY-street-art-inspired-urban-fresh-skate-culture-alt-sub-hip-
independent-and-did-I-mention-DIY art to…pre-adolescent suburban masses and That Middle Aged Dude Hitting On You At Every Basement Show? Honestly, who are the customers plugging in their credit card number to this site? I beg to know. If you know of anyone who has actually purchased a Have It Your Way Tee, send me his/her e-mail address. I need to interview him/her IMMEDIATELY.
Why not just support these artists directly?
Why pay off The Burger King Kid’s Club for Grown-Ups?
From the blog: “Silkscreening is a blast, but hey- with this feature you get to see your design before you waste a fancy American Apparel shirt AND you don’t have to worry about getting ink all over yourself (it happens).”
I do not fancy myself an aesthetic elitist. May that be stated, on the record, before I dive headfirst into the rest of this entry. I do, however, consider myself and those who I choose to surround myself with to be value-centric art practitioners. I believe that we are able-minded and entitled to join in critical discourse surrounding past and present trends in the local and international arts spheres. I believe in the value of honest labor and self-education.
That being said…I can now assert that Jean Baudrillard is spinning in his grave. Burger King killed the Philosophy Star? This is truly simulacra at its most perverse. A corporate project in screenprinter’s clothing has subsumed the original medium, both in practice and theory. I have as much interest in seeing an exhibition of Burger-raped artists or visiting a Disney World kiosk as I have in eating my own hand. It would be like attending a funeral for all of the values I truly believe still exist in the world.
Baudrillard explains the successive phases of the image:
1 It is the reflection of a basic reality.
2 It masks and perverts a basic reality.
3 It masks the absence of a basic reality.
4 It bears no relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum.
Burger King Studio is the new Disney World. But this lament is nothing new, of course. It is simply a complete and embarrassing bastardization of craft. I would rather be doomed to run, naked, around the streets of Atlantic City for the rest of my life than be paraded around by Burger King with my “street-inspired” hamburger art, speaking about the rise of urban self-expression.
I understand that It’s The Economy, Stupid. But if you are THAT hard up for cash and are interested in Burger King (???), feed yourself on a Value Meal for $3.99 instead of selling your artwork to the Hamburglar.
To the Burger-curated artists and the art director behind this project (probably not so unlike myself and people I know), I challenge you to take the high road. Take back your squeegees and brushes before it’s too late, and you’ve become what ate you.
Written by robin on 03/18/2009 in Activism | Blog | Food | News | Philosophy | Theory/Criticism
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