Shadowboxing; a post on commercial stencil graffiti

Using stencil graffiti as a medium for a commercial "guerilla marketing" campaign is nothing new, but it's not something you see every day in Moscow. So I was startled to see a cluster of identical stencils near the Shchyolkovskaya metro station, evidently promoting "Shadowboxing," a recently released Russian movie. The caption reads, "Бой с тенью," or "Shadowboxing."


11:21am, March 19.


Entrance to the Shchyolkovskaya station, 12:55pm, March 19.


12:55pm, March 19.


2 stencils - one at far left - on a bus stop shelter, along with two "Isk"
tags and a scavenger picking up a recyclable bottle, 12:57pm, March 19.


Shadowboxing with a pay phone, 12:58pm, March 19.

Using counterculture media to launch corporate, commerical ad campaigns is old hat in the West, and it's not a brand-new (so to speak) idea in Moscow, either. Below is a remnant of one such campaign from last year, when Adidas had these stickers all over the city - shortly before the official portion of the campaign, including trolleybuses painted with full-length versions of this sticker. I wonder if they did this in other cities?


"I [Adidas] Moscow" sticker on an outdoor ashtray/trash
can near the Voikovskoe metro station, 3:30pm, March 19.