Here’s more of Evan Hecox’s work, to further illustrate how they are robbing his style.

Two weekends ago I was out running errands and I stopped at the light at Franklin and Cahuenga which is pretty much the most northern end of Hollywood. I stop in the left hand turn lane, and dead ahead of me I see a billboard that shocked the crap out of me. It’s a Coca-Cola Zero ad with Evan Hecox-esque artwork. I studied it for as long as I could, and as I turned left I said to myself, “There’s no way Evan did that.”

So last night I went out to the corner of Franklin and Cahuenga, took the photo above, and sent it my friend Andy, who just happened to Evan last weekend. Andy said to Evan, “Hey Evan, I saw the billboard you did for Coke”, but I guess Evan was bummed because he didn’t do the billboard. Evan said that the ad agency called him to do it, but he turned them down.

Yet again another big company is churning out their own shitty versions of awesome artwork just to make a buck. Some of you might remember the Sony Bravia commercial that ripped off Kozyndan? To me this is the very same thing, it’s totally shameless. I don’t drink soda, so I can’t exactly boycott them, but I’m definitely going to do my damndest to spread this post around to as many blogs as possible, and hopefully Coke will catch a clue that stealing someone’s artistic style isn’t going to sell more sodas, it’s going to get people upset.

Bobby

38 Comments »

1. you know what’s going to get you even more fired up?
   Check out this:
   http://www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/orphan.html

   (listen to the interview)

   Comment by b — April 22, 2008 #

2. I’m not familiar with Evan’s work, but it also looks a whole lot like Hope Ganglof.
   http://www.hopegangloff.com/

   Comment by Tom — April 22, 2008 #

3. […] Check it out here. […]

   Pingback by Coca Cola Shamelessly Rips Off Evan Hecox In New Billboard | The Click — April 22, 2008 #

4. Tom: It sort of does, but it’s definitely meant to mimic Evan Hecox’s work.

   Comment by Bobby — April 22, 2008 #

5. at least the Kozyndan rip-off looked semi-decent.
   This just looks like shit.

   Comment by maxjue — April 22, 2008 #

6. I don’t know if Evan can really be that pissed. Fine art is ripped off all the time for commercial purposes… at least the ad agency tried to get the real thing in this case.

   Comment by Jefferton — April 22, 2008 #

7. No one said Evan was pissed, I said I was pissed.
   The fact that he was asked to do the campaign, and then they mimic his style is totally underhanded. As for fine art, what are you talking about, paintings that are hundreds of years old? You can’t exactly go and ask Da Vinci to help with ad campaign.

   Comment by Bobby — April 22, 2008 #

8. Hmm… the ad agency wanted Evan. Evan turned them down so they looked for an illustrator with a simular style to Evan’s. What is wrong with that? As long as they don’t use Evan’s artwork I can’t see a problem here.

   Comment by Bjorn — April 22, 2008 #

9. Coke’s ad firm illustrators know EXACTLY what they done. They know the difference between riffing on an established artist’s style (like Magritte or Warhol) and directly imitating an emerging artist.

   Tom Waits has successfully sued for kind of infringement:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Waits#Lawsuits

   Comment by hannah — April 22, 2008 #

10. I have always been a big fan of Evan’s work for Chocolate. Coca Cola obviously wanted their ad in a certain look, and they set their mind on Evan Hecox’s style. I understand, that if there has been a lot of work, around the idea of his style, before he turned them down, it can be hard to start all over. But I see this result, as being not very creative… I bet they could have found another artist, with a unique style, who would have worked with them…

    Comment by Benjamin — April 22, 2008 #

11. My best friend was an animator on the Sony Bravia bunny commercial, and even she said it had “striking similarities” to kozyndan.

    Evan was recently in Jux, wasn’t he?

    It really burns me that there are so many artists who will say to an agency “Oh yeah, I can do it like him/her, but for cheaper!” AHRRRGH!!

    Comment by Veronica — April 22, 2008 #

12. It’s possible that it’s Adam Haynes. His style is similar to Evan’s. It still sucks that the agency found an artist to imitate the style of another artist, but if it is Haynes he isn’t imitating, that’s just his steez.

    Comment by Brad — April 22, 2008 #

13. happens all the time. they gave him an opportunity at least. many times no one will even ask. when $ are the only criteria and you can get a similar look for cheap, why not? you are only answering to an accounting staff not to an artistic moral authority.

    Comment by ian — April 22, 2008 #

14. I don’t see any similarity. I think you’re grasping at straws.

    Comment by Tyler — April 22, 2008 #

15. Yeah, me too Bobby. You probably think there’s similarities between Theodor Geisel and Dr. Seuss. Or Richard Bachman and Stephen King. Or light grey and light light grey. Or Tyler and a moron. Oh wait - those are all similar. In fact, they’re almost the same exact things.

    EVAN WAS CONTACTED TO DO THIS JOB. OF COURSE THEY’RE SIMILAR.

    Comment by Garrett — April 22, 2008 #

16. I find it worse that an illustrator agreed to copy another illustrators style. I expect ad agencies to do this type of thing.

    Comment by Tony — April 23, 2008 #

17. I saw this exact billboard on the way to LAX. I wasn’t shocked and appalled just because I didn’t know it was a rip off. Now that I do, i’ll be sure and spread the word. I don’t have a massively popular blog but, I will let my friends know.

    Comment by Jawabiscuit — April 23, 2008 #

18. Look at the the history of art on skate decks and logos. It’s all ripped off from other shit. I agree that the skateboarding industry has some totally rad, influential artists, but fuck dude, everyone bites everyones shit.

    Comment by marcus — April 24, 2008 #

19. Gimme a break. Every so-called skate/underground/pop artist borrows and sometimes steals for inspiration. You can’t exactly copyright a style that is so easily mimicked. Don’t get me wrong, I love Evan’s stuff, but I think there is a double standard here.

    Comment by Ites — April 24, 2008 #

20. I’d love to hear who Evan Hecox is ripping off? Please inform me, because I’ve never seen anyone who’s been doing the things he’s been doing ever, and he’s been drawing like this since at least the mid-90’s.

    Also think about the fact Coke is a multi-BILLION dollar company who is now cashing in on someone else’s unique talent. Evan Hecox isn’t a skateboard company either, he’s an artist, so comparing the two doesn’t make any sense.

    The apathetic comments that have been posted on here so far are pretty sad and bullshit. It’s okay for Coke to steal, it happens all the time. What if you were an amazing artist and they decided to “borrow” your style, then how would you feel? It’s a little different when the shoes on the other foot…

    Comment by Bobby — April 24, 2008 #

21. Totally bitten from his Evan’s artwork.

    NO QUESTION ABOUT IT.

    Hecox is completely original..doesn’t get his style from anywhere. It’s been there all along.

    So sad that Illustration is going in this direction. FUCK COCA-COLA.

    I agree with whoever wrote that this is ‘underhanded’ … so fucking lame its depressing.

    Comment by paul — April 24, 2008 #

22. did anyone take a look at the link i sent?
    I think that’s a pretty big deal and it has a lot to do with this sort of thing. I know my comment isn’t about that particular artist, but if that Orphan Works bill goes into effect much worse things will happen than some company mimicking another artists style.

    Comment by b — April 24, 2008 #

23. I don’t think its really that underhanded that coke did that. Not that I’m lovin on coke, I don’t…but they obviously asked him to do their ad for a reason…that reason being they liked his style and wanted it in the ad. He turned them down. So in turn they had to find another source..either someone with a similar style, or someone who could rip his style without sucking too bad at it. Either way it is kind of a bummer, but mostly because He turned them down and that it could have been his work on the billboard, not some imitation.

    And yes, everyone should look into the Orphan Works bill. Baaaad stuff for us artists.

    Comment by Rawls — April 24, 2008 #

24. quick criticism — think about the fact that by “spreading it to as many blogs as possible” you are giving coke buckets of free advertising. How much would a 640 X 250 ad cost on this site? Well you just handed that over to Coke. They care simply about exposure, no matter whether it is positive or negative.

    As hard as it is, it’s probably best to ignore it.

    Comment by D — April 24, 2008 #

25. Ignoring a problem never makes it go away.

    Comment by Bobby — April 24, 2008 #

26. hah, you’ve got to be kidding, that style is everywhere and I can list three artists that that work could just as easily be from. Its a trendy style, what, you expect art to be original? nothing would ever get made.

    Comment by chris — April 24, 2008 #

27. Oh please, enlighten me Mr. Art Pro. I’d love for you to show me someone who’s been drawing like Evan Hecox since before the mid-90’s. If you can show me THREE of them I’ll buy you a fucking Coke, haha…

    Comment by Bobby — April 24, 2008 #

28. well…
    I might have less sense of style of anyone else,
    but I don’t really see a knock-off…
    I just think that the coke advert is ugly enough to be distinguished by the real artwork…
    I don’t see the use of orange as a detail stolen from the artist.
    maybe I’m just too little sensitive :)

    amazingly beautiful work from Hecox…
    the quality (if any) of the coke ad is really low and the dude drinking is very badly produced.

    Comment by ubi de feo — April 25, 2008 #

29. i really don’t get it. the coke as is a run-of-the-mill vector drawing. the other is an old school anime style drawing. they both have street signs. what am i missing here? they’re not similar enough for it to be a rip-off. coke has a hip urban image it wants to present and just because it had the smarts to try a great artist like hecox and then settled with a shittier similar artist to achieve the goal they started with means nothing. don’t get your panties in a bunch

    Comment by tega — April 25, 2008 #

30. i take photos and trace them in illustrator too along with thousands of other people. consider me unimpressed with evan hecox’s revolutionary original style.

    Comment by ron — April 25, 2008 #

31. Tega & Ron: You guys must not know anything about Evan Hecox or his art. He doesn’t paint anything near to being anime (which is a cartoon, japanese drawings are more commonly referred to as manga) and he doesn’t trace anything in any computer. He hand paints giant, beautiful pieces that are absolutely amazing.

    Comment by Bobby — April 25, 2008 #

32. Aren’t you guys supposed to be hating on the ad agency and not Coca-Cola..? For all we know Coca-Cola doesn’t even have any idea on what’s going on. Same shit with Sony. This whole “stick it to the man” crap is seriously going out of hand.

    Comment by bryant — April 26, 2008 #

33. it’s like looking at a chocolate skateboards deck design (which evan does the illustrations for).
    Coke have a responsibility to make sure their stuffs original regardless of whether an ad agency or whoever designs their stuff. They’re blatantly plagirising, but i guess they can continue to get away with it because of the ‘artistic license’

    Comment by drew — April 28, 2008 #

34. I’m not sure how my son’s picture was used in this campaign. We drove by one of the billboards in LA and were stunned. Anyone know who the ad agency is? Let me know how and where I can post his pic and you will see it is him!

    Comment by Johnny Smith — April 30, 2008 #

35. isn’t evan part of the blkmrkt collective that didn’t some identity stuff for mountain dew? blkmrkt could have been contracted by coke and evan ended up being the one working the project.

    Comment by nich — May 1, 2008 #

36. Except he didn’t do it, that was established from the very beginning.

    Comment by Bobby — May 1, 2008 #

37. There is also the fact that perhaps the artist did not want to be associated with a company like coke. By using a style that has such obvious similarities to the artists, the ad agency is also affecting the ‘brand’ of Evan Hecox. Fortunately, the coke billboard will be forgotten with the gust of a fresh ad campaign, where as I’d like to think the artist’s work will stand the test of time.

    Comment by Zeldz — June 3, 2008 #

38. […] I already knew the story, but the photos are “borrowed” from Kitsune Noir. […]

    Pingback by STEAL SOME COCA COLA | Vapors Magazine — July 22, 2008 #

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