This stern, cheerful, inane PSA from Counselor Films about graffiti says a lot of things that are mostly true, and yet doesn’t seem to get anything right at all. The graffiti depicted in the video (some of it concocted for the video, of course) is indeed a blight in visual terms—it’s hard to argue the point. Either they didn’t know that some graffiti can be aesthetically appealing or the “golden age of graffiti” hadn’t really happened yet—I suspect it’s a bit of both.
Meanwhile, the need to express oneself, the benefits of outlaw behavior, the fundamental need for protest—you won’t hear about any of that here.
The video features a sublimely silly pop song that suggests what might have happened if your parents had descended into the rec room and wrested control over Rod Torfulson’s Armada:
Hey is it fun or just dumb?
Yes, either it’s fun or just dumb
You know there are kids in school
Some of them break the rules
Hey is it fun or just dumb?
Maybe what they’re doin’s funny
Maybe it may look that way
But maybe if it’s costin’ money
I wonder what it’ll cost—who’s gonna pay?
Hey is it fun or just dumb?
Yes, either it’s fun or just dumb
Either it’s fun or just dumb
From A/V Geeks
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘Bad Graffiti’: Vulgar, juvenile, misspelled & ignorant wall scrawlings from Detroit (NSFW-ish)
Graffiti pioneer Stay High 149, R.I.P.