Graffiti is branding.

An insightful essay from Roy Christopher about the similarities between graffiti writing and branding and advertising. Exactly.

Graffiti tags have to be catchy, and they have to have good letters — letters that can be twisted up and together in wild style forms often only legible to other writers. Graffiti — and its corporate sanctioned sister art, advertising — are our modern day cave paintings. As Marshall McLuhan put it,

…ads are not intended to be seen but to produce an effect. The cave paintings were carefully hidden. They were a magic form, intended to affect events at a distance. They were of corporate, not private origin.

Brands and their logos are modern-day sigils intended to affect actions from afar.