Going to the dogs

One day, I was walking in my neighborhood in San Francisco and I saw some dog excrement. Unfortunately, that’s not unusual. What got my attention was that atop this dog excrement was a little picture of President Bush mounted on a toothpick. I had stumbled upon someone’s brilliant art project. Over the course of the next few weeks, I saw several Bush turds (my term), and each time, I smiled at how wonderful artistic activism can be.

I imagined the creative and mischievous individual or individuals armed with their toothpick Bush heads making a statement out of shit on the street. I wasn’t signing a petition. I wasn’t making a gift. I was getting pure enjoyment out of their symbolic action.

Unfortunately, there was no URL on the Bush turds. (Yes, I got close enough to look). And my Google search didn’t turn up an online component. But I still think about the project. And while in my eyes, the campaign could have benefited from some direct response strategies, their take on shit just plain inspired me.

And speaking of creative inspiration, here’s another artistic campaign (sans shit this time) that’s inspiring me. Check out the Art Initial project.