OBEY And Read This

A couple of nights ago I re-watched the 1988 John Carpenter film They Live for the first time in quite awhile. In addition to other pop cultural references contained therein I noticed the origin of the OBEY advertising campaign which campaign I had noticed before, obviously, but that came AFTER the previous time I watched the movie. The aforementioned counter-culture ad campaign created by Left-wing activist street artist Shepard Fairey began in 1989 as an odd ode to the late Canadian wrestler André the Giant entitled "Andre the Giant Has a Posse." Fairey has admitted the Carpenter film influenced his own "obey" idea. Fairey later created the now famous (or infamous) Barack Obama "Hope" poster in 2008 whose basic image he illegally appropriated from another person's photograph. This iconic image has gone on to inspire innumerable satirical incarnations.   

Still image from the film They Live.

Stylized artistic rendering of previous image.

"Andre the Giant Has a Posse" image.

The most iconic political image thus far in the 21st Century.

The circle is completed with this satirical take on "Hope."