Shepard Fairey's OBEY street-art campaign, made famous by its ubiquitous "Andre the Giant has a posse" meme, has increasingly blurred the lines between illegal street art and legitimate commercial marketing. The line may be all but gone now, as Atari has announced that Fairey has created a new limited-edition, movie-sized poster that will be given to customers who preorder its upcoming graffiti game, Mark Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC.
Slated for a November release, Getting Up is set in the city of New Radius, where an oppressive city government restricts freedom of expression and has outlawed graffiti. In the game, players take on the role of a neophyte graffiti artist who gains skills and fame as he uses his art to bring down the city's mayor and the tyrannical city government.
It seems New Raidus isn't the only city that has a problem with graffiti. In a case of life imitating art, or perhaps just history repeating itself, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in August revoked a permit for a Getting Up Bloc Party in support of the game because it encouraged vandalism. A judge later declared that revocation unconstitutional.
Mark Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure will retail for $49.99. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.