Wednesday, October 07, 2009

TBWCYL Day 280 - Model Citizen

Today was kind of fun. I was supposed to deface a mannequin for idolizing unrealistic body types. I had planned to go to the mall but I also had my first book club meeting today so it ran too long to go so I had to improvise. I was going to mess with a Gap or New York and Company mannequin so I was in a pickle.

I was at my local Borders for the book club meeting and was walking around when I saw a giant standee for a new book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. It is called Dog Days and there was a 5 foot tall standee promoting it. Well, what better thing to deface than the mannequin equivalent for the bookstore that is all about how skinny a kid is? The standee is the kid from the book cover so you can see what I mean by him being skinny.

I went and found a sheet of paper and a piece of tape and wrote in big letters, "I'm Skinny". I rolled the tape up and made a tube out of it to stick it to the standee. Then, with no one around I slapped it on the standee and nonchalantly walked away. I don't know if my protest will bring about a revolution of kids to only read about fat children but you never know.

These guerrilla tactics are always fun because they can be acted on fairly quickly and take some stealth. I always imagine the person who finds these to be confused at the idea of someone harmlessly vandalising something. Or maybe it is the idea that a grown man will stick a makeshift graffiti on a cardboard standee. Who knows?

That is all,

Newt

3 Ripples in the pond:

Soda and Candy said...

You can't mess with the Lane Bryant mannequins, they are disturbingly true to lumpy real-life shapes.

Laura said...

Hahahaha- "Today was kind of fun. I was supposed to deface a mannequin for idolizing unrealistic body types." I couldn't stop giggling at this.

One of my favorite pastimes is this thing my cousin, my friend Nick and I refer to as Grocery Store Shenanigans, where we basically go to our favorite Stop and Shop, act like loons, and deface some of their signs. I don't know how this started.

Trinity said...

I am all for humerous vandalism as long as it isn't permanent. I don't want to cause long term harm but stuff like rearranging words on signs and stuff is funny.