Graffiti ads tag NBC for possible city fines

[Kadie]

Graffiti ads tag NBC for possible city fines
Stenciled phrases that promote TV show don't wash off easily

Suzanne Herel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, July 24, 2004

NBC may have misjudged its audience when it hired a local firm to stencil teasers for a new television show on sidewalks across San Francisco. The guerrilla marketing graffiti didn't hook residents; it made them mad -- and now, city officials are asking the broadcasting company to pay thousands of dollars to make up for its misdeed.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday most likely will approve a resolution urging the city attorney to coordinate with the Department of Public Works to collect damages from the broadcasting company. Fines alone for a first-time graffiti vandal run $100 to $300 per site.

But that's not all. The resolution's author, Supervisor Bevan Dufty, wants to use the graffiti as a tool to persuade NBC to make a sizable donation to fund beautification projects in San Francisco.

He's taking his cue from a 2001 incident in which then-Supervisor Gavin Newsom wrangled more than $100,000 out of IBM after the computer giant misguidedly spray-painted ads for its Linux program all over the city using a substance that had to be soda-blasted off.

more... http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/24/BAGIT7SDFK1.DTL

[TrueAmerican]

1. Someone at NBC

needs to be fired. They didn't know it was against the law?

Gimme a Break.

[NashVegas]

2. Haha.

Apparently in SF, you can only use grafitti to plaster uncommercial messages. Bless 'em.

In the '80s when I vacationed there, every stop sign in the Haight had some addition to it. "Stop Reagan." "Stop war," etc.