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Comment by mintplant | Hacker News Reader

The branding reminds me instantly of OBEY [0], which was really big for a while in the 2010s.

Yesterday some girl was wearing one of those T shirts in a newspaper photo. I'd never saw them before. Is it related to Carpenter's movie?

> Is [OBEY] related to Carpenter's movie?

Yes. This is covered a bit in jwz's writeup "They Live and the secret history of the Mozilla logo".

I think very few people realize Shepard Fairey ripped off Carpenter’s “They Live” movie.

And that "They Live" was heavily influenced by the work of Barbara Kruger.

Oh wow. I had never seen her work, but a quick Google Images search totally confirms that.

yeah, she doesn't get talked about enough for how much she has influenced pop culture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_Fairey

His work was plastered all over major city centers (Berkley, New York, Seattle) in the 90s. 20 years later, it's a retro cultural icon.

Indeed, I made the same link. However, even at its largest, obey did not have a broad-enough appeal as what Coca-Cola execs would've wanted. Also, the ties with a mainstream brand would be off-putting to the core OBEY customer.

What’s a stronger mainstream brand than the Obama campaign (same artist)?

Out of order... The “branding” that became Obey started in 1989. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_the_Giant_Has_a_Posse

But it took off in a resurgence in Obama era.

Two things having the same artist doesn't mean they have the same mainstream potential. As I understand it, the "OBEY" thing was distinctly anti-authoritarian. For it to become mainstream would be for it to become the subject of it's own mockery.

Maybe it started that way but it became a whole large corporate clothing line.

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