Well, you could have guessed it wasn’t going to be a straight-forward advertisement for Coke.

I enjoy it, but it, like other advertisements it critiques, put itself in front of me without asking for my permission. Is this a type of institutional critique, or is subversion from within the corporate juggernaut even possible? Better yet, did Banksy get paid?

No, and no, and no. After a series of rabbit holes known as internet research, this is what I found about the above image, which has been floating around the internet for months. The statement is a quote from Banksy’s book (which borrowed heavily from someone else’s writing). It was then set by Karina Nurdinova, a graphic designer in Italy, who never expected it to take off. Isn’t the internet funny like that? But Nurdinova is not the only one who was this way inspired by Banksy’s work. For a laugh, see the work of French art director Christophe Pilate who turned Banksy street art into corporate ads in March of this past year.