Propaganda Brand Aid April 2000
Victoria C. Rowan

Now that the branding has been elevated to an art form, and street cred is the proven key to selling anything, the San Diego-based BLK/MRKT agency has emerged as a latter-day Michelangelo…and corporate America as its willing patron. The white-hot “visual communication” group (it’s like an ad agency, but, you know… cooler) was founded in ‘97, when Shepard Fairey- notorious for both his “absurdist propaganda” posters of wrestler obey giant and his arrest record for graffiti- went legit. BLK/MRKT’s skillfully crafted criminal aura and guerilla marketing tactics have already enhanced the profiles of Mountain Dew, Netscape, and Hasbro Toys(!). Their latest campaign- “wanted posters” introducing the villains in legendary comic artist Stan Lee’s new online series The 7th Portal-smacks of the ethos that has made BLK/MRKT such a success: Secretly, we all love the bad guy