McDonald's Defy Banksy Ban in Bond Street

Outside the West One Shopping complex, that houses Bond Street Station, this sign has appeared.

No food or drink illustrations allowed beyond this point

Inside West One the food illustrators, chiefly McDonalds, are carrying on regardless! In defiant mood they have even chosen to illustrate precisely the products that Banksy has specifically banned i.e. burgers, fries and sodas!

I will not give McDonald's the oxygen of publicity that they so clearly crave by reproducing their illustrations here, I am sure you can imagine the sort of images they have so blatantly used.

Banksy first issued a similar ban back in 2010 at his "Lambeth Palace" cinema on Leake Street, where Exit Through the Gift Shop premièred. You can see an image of the original large scale sign here.

The message of the smaller scale sticker at Bond Street is not diminished by its size. Nor do I think it matters whether Banksy himself produced the sticker version and placed it here, or whether it is the work of a studio assistant. The message is clear and I feel McDonald's should desist from food illustration at the site immediately.

Does anyone know of other sites where McDonald's are flouting similar bans?  If so please drop me a line and perhaps together we can nip this worrying trend in the bud.

The Clipstone Street Banksy - A Call to Arms, Update

The new Banksy in Clipstone Street, Fitzrovia is drawing a small but appreciative crowd each day.

Red-Handed Rat

A local councillor has started a petition to preserve the work. If you would like to sign up you can do so here: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/savethenewbanksy

Update: 17th May 2011

Pleased to see yesterday that the work is now safely behind a heavy perspex sheet.

I don't know who undertook the preservation work, did the petition pay off?

Banksy on Bond Street? No, it's a Rich Simmons and it has Been Stolen!

A new piece of street art appeared a couple of weeks ago on a hoarding almost opposite Sothebys on New Bond Street, London.

Speculation was that this was Banksy's official Royal Wedding image, but in fact it was the work of Rich Simmons and had been commissioned by the Opera Gallery next door. Incidentally they still have one Rich Simmons on sale, HMQ on a throne, that is of the rest room variety.

This hoarding was stolen on Monday night, 11th April 2011, perhaps in the misapprehension that it was a Banksy, or perhaps in the knowledge that a Rich Simmons this size might well be worth £10k in it's own right!