Artist Steve Lambert and the San Francisco Print Collective collaborated to create the “Anti-Advertising Agency,” an interdisciplinary project examining the role of advertising and public art in the Bay Area. Through parody, the artists asked passersby to critically consider the role and strategies of marketing media and alternatives for the public arena.
The collaborators’ approach was to co-opt tools and structures of the advertising and public relations industries. They created a facetious corporate structure with lead artist Steve Lambert as the CEO, San Francisco Print Collective members serving as the board of directors, and fiscal sponsor Pond, as the CFO. The agency developed a corporate identity and image and “hired” collaborating artists on a rotating schedule to collaborate on developing ideas and completing projects. Other participating artists included Adam Connelly, Sara Dierck, Michael Dodge, Packard Jennings, Josh MacPhee, Dara Greenwald, Susan Greene, and Amanda Eicher.
Steve Lambert is a conceptual artist whose work intends to provoke and amuse. Prior to the Anti-Advertising Agency, his projects included the Budget Gallery, an idealistic venture that presented low-cost gallery style exhibitions in high traffic public areas—generally on vacant walls, chain link fences, and sides of abandoned buildings. The San Francisco Print Collective’s aim is to increase public awareness and dialogue about local, national, and international concerns by producing posters, banners, and billboards throughout San Francisco that are informative, memorable, and thought-provoking.