All City Commitee

In December of 2007 AriZona Beverage Company, which originated in Brooklyn, NY released its new energy drink: All City NRG, in limited edition subway series cans that pay tribute to graffiti artists. The term "All City" refers to a graffiti artist who has achieved fame in all 5 boroughs of New York City.

Apparently, this outraged City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens) enough for him to call a press conference and launch a crusade against All City, urging stores citywide to pull the product from it's shelves, stating "It actually glorifies a vandal...and is a blatant attempt to sell graffiti to kids". The drink was brought to his attention by one of his cop friends who was obviously tired of fighting real crime and stopped in a store to get a energy boost. Vallone is joined in his fight by Councilman James Oddo (R- Mid-Island/Brooklyn) who calls the city's history of graffiti "...an embarrassment". Naturally, this is all backed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who in 2005 implemented the Anti-Graffiti Task Force, an 80 member unit assigned specifically to track and monitor the 100 most frequent vandalism offenders.

If this all seems a bit extreme, that's because it is. Vandalizing someone else's property is most certainly a crime, and I don't think anyone who does such is under the impression that what they're doing is not an illegal activity (in fact, that's often part of the thrill) but graffiti is an art-form that is widely recognized to have influenced the look and style of pop culture for the past few decades. Marketing execs and Ad agencies realize the visual appeal of graffiti and are using it's more subtle design aspects to sell products to a generation of consumers that are familiar with - and therefore - more comfortable with it's presence.

Art is defined as creative expression that requires skill or practice to execute, and graffiti easily falls under that heading. The fact that it has it's roots in the inner-city streets does not make it any less valid as an art-form. The manner in which a thing is used should ultimately determine it's worth. If I use a hammer to build a house, but you use a hammer to kill your wife... is the hammer a useful tool or is it a murder weapon?

It's all perspective.