Tricked by advertising graffiti

Regular readers know my position on graffiti. Generally, I absolutely detest it, especially on buildings, especially on commercial buildings, especially on brick that has never been painted. On the other hand, inventive thought-provoking graffiti gets my attention in a positive way.

I thought that the below graffiti, painted on the sidewalk on the west side of the 3500 block of 12th Street NE, was the latter type of graffiti, until I clicked through to the URL and discovered that Coasting is an online promotion website for Shimano gears.

A few years ago, Sony had a similar kind of campaign that ran afoul of zoning laws in Philadelphia.

Eddie Torres, of Philadelphia, walks by Sony Corp. ads for their playstation portable games Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005, in a gritty north Philadelphia neighborhood. A city official says the ads violate a city zoning process. (AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy)