Peace, Love, and Linux

This is Tux

IBM's Peace, Love, and Linux advertising campaign, sidewalk graffiti, observed on April 20, 2001 9:39:38 AM in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Commercial speech masquerading as street art. On an April morning in 2001 on my way to work, I noticed this curious graffiti on the sidewalk, right on the corner where I lived. Was this a clever ad campaign? It was too neat and clean to be graffiti. As I suspected, it turned out to be an ad masterminded by Ogilvy and Mather for IBM's Linux-based e-server push with the theme of peace, love, and Linux, represting the union of IBM the corporate establishment with Linux and it's counter-cultural roots. In several cities including New York and San Francisco city officials complained. Usually corporations pay for their ad space. IBM refused to comment on whether the graffiti was illegal or not, however, they eventually pulled the ads. All the press and protest I'm sure helped make the campaign a success.

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Comments

benimnetz says:

Nice!
Posted 53 months ago. ( permalink )

Stopped. says:

Whatever it was, you certainly captured a legendary piece of Linux history. And thanks for making me aware of the Linux Flickr group.
Posted 53 months ago. ( permalink )

MicheleM_ says:

Very cool!
Posted 53 months ago. ( permalink )

Steba [deleted] says:

very nice sho, simple but... good :)
Posted 53 months ago. ( permalink )

Escape Vehicle says:

It was legendary, but many people thought it was in poor taste. It was a bold campaign from Linux, but the grafitti was supposed to wash off in the first rain. Unfortunately the cats who actually laid down the art used real spray paint, and in many instances, it remained on the sidewalks for many months.
Posted 52 months ago. ( permalink )

kino-eye says:

Escape Vehicle says, "many people thought it was in poor taste." I have to admit I was annoyed when I found out it was not an "underground" linux thing but an IBM/Ogilvy and Mather thing. The sender, as well as the medium, is the message.
Posted 52 months ago. ( permalink )

LaserGuided says:

wow, it's wonderful that you caught this when this came out!

Please consider posting this to the Coming-Out Free pool.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

kino-eye says:

Thanks for all the comments. This is why I advocate, "Don't leave home without it," (in reference to carrying a digital camera with you wherever you go).
Posted 48 months ago. ( permalink )

billikidbrand says:

Gotta♥NYC!
Posted 39 months ago. ( permalink )

Chrysaora says:

A similar situation happened (city complaining about corporate "street advertisement", that is) with the launch of the Sony PSP--they hired lots of graffiti artists to do these really cool drawings, but of kids playing PSPs. Hugely pissed off the graffiti community too.

Is there a chance, though, that this was just done by some MIT kid? MIT once pulled a "Peace Love and Linux" hack, pasting above symbols onto skylights with condoms to remind people to practice "Safe Hex".
Posted 39 months ago. ( permalink )

kino-eye says:

Chance that it was done by a student? Yes, but a very small one... this was in fact an ad campaign...
Posted 38 months ago. ( permalink )

mardvw says:

Appluad that pic
Posted 36 months ago. ( permalink )

Bright lights from giantwheel ! says:

jaajajaja
cool picture
Posted 32 months ago. ( permalink )

rarara77 [deleted] says:

Nice Picture.
Posted 27 months ago. ( permalink )

kino-eye says:

Thanks for the continued comments on this photo, one of my more popular ones.
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

Ehab (Mehedi Rahman) says:

Hey kino-eye, lovely capture :)

I have used this picture in one of my articles. Please check it out in my blog.
Posted 25 months ago. ( permalink )

Hotash says:

i was invited to add to this group. . .i think you should consider adding to
One Million Peace Signs
Posted 24 months ago. ( permalink )

malagent says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Have you seen Tux?, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.
Posted 23 months ago. ( permalink )

Michael Hendrickx says:

Very nice, awesome shot.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

Moktoipas says:

Cool pic, I used it here:
www.moktoipas.com/428-nouveau-pc-nouveau-linu x
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

lukasz.sliwa says:

I use linux a lot of time and it's my best system ever, so when I see word 'linux' with 'peace and love' i feel very nice. Thanks a lot!
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

toxygen1 says:

I have such t-shirt for 4 years now, never realized it was ibm campaign :)
I always thought it was "Peace loves Linux"
Posted 12 months ago. ( permalink )

JonyTut says:

Can I use this pic in our Novosibirsk Linux User Group site?
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

kino-eye says:

Of course, the image is licensed with a CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 license, use as you will, especially for something Linux related!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

ajswillis says:

I just found this while doing some research for my book. I was the Vice President of Integrated Marketing Communications for IBM and responsible for this campaign. IBM pulled the campaign becuase of this - against my better judgement. Our intent was to fuel the Linux movement, start a popular revolution. We achieved a lot in a short time. However big corporations can't, and probably shouldn't behave like small ones. IBM were embarrassed. They pulled a great campaign too soon. We paid, I think, $6 million to the cities involved. We had teams of people scouring the streets looking for the stencils. We hated the firm who promised to execute with chalk dust and didn't. Black, indelible, water resistant paint takes a lot of getting off. Especially in San Francisco where the chemicals you use elsewhere are banned!
Another lesson to strengthen life!
Thought people might like to know the story. My greatest sadness was that the Ogilvy team who found the insights and created the campaign lost out to poor execution.

Here are some links to other related material.
[http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/linux /passport.swf]
[http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2006/pea ce_love_penguins/additional_information.html]
On the second link you'll find we did start a revolution. This was others joing the revolution!
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

kino-eye says:

ajswillis, thank you for posting your note and sharing your insights into this fascinating campaign along with the links!
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

cosmonautirussi says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called www.flickr.com/groups/26811361@N00/, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

--
Found in a search. (?)
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

kino-eye says:

@cosmonautirussi, done!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

rs222 says:

pop-art.
Genial!!!
Posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )

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	Selected Images (a best of set of sorts) (Set)
		32 items
	Part of: Various Images & Videos

	Linux (Pool)
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	Graffiti (Pool)
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	stencils (Pool)
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Taken with a Canon PowerShot S100.
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Taken on April 20, 2001
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Peace, Love, and Linux

Comments

benimnetz says:

Stopped. says:

MicheleM_ says:

Steba [deleted] says:

Escape Vehicle says:

kino-eye says:

LaserGuided says:

kino-eye says:

billikidbrand says:

Chrysaora says:

kino-eye says:

mardvw says:

Bright lights from giantwheel ! says:

rarara77 [deleted] says:

kino-eye says:

Ehab (Mehedi Rahman) says:

Hotash says:

malagent says:

Michael Hendrickx says:

Moktoipas says:

lukasz.sliwa says:

toxygen1 says:

JonyTut says:

kino-eye says:

ajswillis says:

kino-eye says:

cosmonautirussi says:

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rs222 says:

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