Sunday, September 03, 2006

A pretty spunky prank if you ask me!

It's one thing to spray-paint grafitti on a subway wall, but it's on an entirely different plane to do what "Banksy" did:
He has smuggled fake artwork into Tate Britain, and sprayed a vision of paradise on the Palestinian side of Israel's "security wall".

Now, the "guerrilla graffiti" artist Banksy has taken aim at the cult of empty celebrity and its current poster child, Paris Hilton.

The secretive artist has smuggled 500 doctored copies of Paris Hilton's debut album into music stores throughout the UK, where they have sold without the shops' knowledge.

In place of Ms Hilton's bubble-gum pop songs, the CDs feature Banksy's own rudimentary compositions. On the cover of the doctored CD, Ms Hilton's dress has been digitally repositioned to reveal her bare breasts; on an inside photo, her head has been replaced with that of her dog.

I have nothing against Ms. Hilton. I'm long past the adolescent stage that is consumed by fashion and the need to express one's opinion about how awful other people are, especially pop culture icons. I'm simply appreciative of the immense effort it took for this guy to infiltrate these stores with counterfeit copies of a CD!

Follow up:

One of my readers has posted what are purported to be pictures of the CD cover and booklet contents. A trifle racy, FYI. Now if we could find the audio recordings substituted for Ms. Hilton's, um, efforts.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

have you found a site that has Banksy's Paris album? I'd love to see that prank!

Robert Sharl said...

I've just got a couple of copies of the Banksy version, and it'll be on my Flickr site in a few minutes..

Anonymous said...

Good for this guy,Banksy!!! Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, Lindsay Lohan, and their ilk are the epitome of what is wrong with young girls today, because they are the ones our teens idolize, and want to emulate. They are wild, crude, thoughtless, and tasteless. They have the idea that they, because they are young, rich, and pretty, that they should be allowed to get away with whatever they want. I, for one am tired of seeing it. Whatever happened to the days that stars were classy and elegant? Lauren Bacall, Lucille Ball, Ethel Merman? Audrey Hepburn, Katherine Hepburn? They were all classy, and elegant. Yes, there were scandals, but, they were not carried out in public like they are today. I guess that is what happens when KIDS are made stars, and given too much money, power, and freedom. And not enough proper upbringing.

Steve Erbach said...

Robert,

Thank you for posting your Flickr site address. What an amazing prank!

Steve Erbach
The Town Crank

Steve Erbach said...

» I guess that is what happens when KIDS are made stars, and given too much money, power, and freedom. And not enough proper upbringing. «

I suppose that the only consolation we have is that those kids will grow up and have their own kids to deal with. THEN they'll be sorry!

Steve Erbach
The Town Crank