OBEY: The Medium is the Message

OBEY Clothing is a popular clothing company distributed in many popular stores throughout the country, such as Urban Outfitters, PacSun, and Nordstrom’s. The average person will probably correlate OBEY with the famous, Barack Obama “Hope” image.  However, most people do not know the origins of the brand and the social and political impact that OBEY made.

OBEY was founded by street artist, Shephard Fairey in 1989, who later went on to become one of the most influential American artists of our generation.  The brand, which incorporated a “play on propaganda art”, was formed when Shepard created a stencil of the famous wrestler, Andre The Giant, with the words, “OBEY” beneath it.  A stencil, that started out as creative accident turned into a worldwide phenomenon.

Check Out More OBEY Art

Shephard began to place these stickers all over the City of Rhode Island.  He would place the stickers on the corner of stop signs, on buildings, and anywhere else the casual eye might see it.  Shephard was fascinated by the curiosity the stickers were getting.  Soon the entire city began to question, “what does this mean?” The answer…'It did not mean anything at all.'  The Medium was the Message.

By placing such a bold image with no explanation, allowed people’s imaginations to manifest the brand.  Shephard was fascinated that in 

American Advertising, companies associate positivity with their products, and consumers rarely question that.  Shephard was curious to see, if people could question his Brand, maybe they would start questioning other Brands as well, creating a domino effect. The word “OBEY” could mean anything and could be different based on the person viewing it.  The goal of OBEY was to reawaken a sense of wonder about one’s environment.  The confusion of what OBEY meant, created wonder, provoked attention to detail, and even caused frustration, nevertheless it forced people to look further into the meaning.

“The more [it’s] out there, the more important it seems.  The more important it seems, the more people want to know what it is, the more they ask each other, it gains real power from perceived power.” – Shephard Fairey

The brand OBEY, went on to reach worldwide fame.  Shephard Fairey was able to use ‘an experiment into Phenomenology’ and content marketing to turn something from ‘nothing’ into ‘everything.’   Shephard went on to start the OBEY clothing line in 2001, was commissioned to place large murals in major cities, and even had an exhibit in the Andy Warhol Museum here in Pittsburgh.

'Shephard Fairey was able to discover how powerful human imagination and curiosity can be'