In an effort to combat a growing vandalism and graffiti culture, Philadelphia Mural Arts was established in 1984. In the decades since, Philadelphia has grown a global reputation for its public art projects and stunning murals, repurposing public spaces to bring color, hope, and inspiration around the city.
credit: Philly Magazine
Enter grassroots London-based Oat Milk company, Minor Figures. Clearly they didn’t get the memo: Bad things happen in Philadelphia. Especially when you tamper with the very attributes that make our city such a unique metro. In a wild attempt at guerrilla marketing, posters for Minor Figures began popping up around the city, most notably covering some of the coveted public art – art encouraging voting, supporting essential workers, denouncing racism, and promoting the city of brotherly love.
Philly Influencer Conrad Banner, better known as @streetsdept, unleashed his anger about the situation to his thousands of followers on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. As his story gained traction, it did not take long for followers to denounce Minor Figures’ actions and call for a boycott, even urging local coffee shops to cancel and current or future use this brand of the popular milk-alternative.
Minor Figures responded to Banner, and did not make matters any better for themselves. When Banner released the screen shots of his conversations, via the Minor Figures official social media account, the brand came off unprofessional and unapologetic, even allegedly blaming the backlash on Banner and other customers for not understanding their intention. Since, public art advocates have emerged on Twitter, outing the company for similar marketing tactics in cities like Portland and Los Angeles.
Minor Figures’ initial response? “Rip the suckers off!”
On April 14th, Minor Figures released this statement on their Instagram:
Philadelphia,
We hear you. We employed local Philly artists for the wild postings, as we are not Philly based. There is always clear instructions where to paste, and of course to never to paste over murals, art, etc. We trusted their judgement. It appears unfortunately some art has been pasted over and this has upset the community. This is clearly a massive error – something which is out of our control – but a mistake and we take responsibility to make it right. As soon as we found out, we instructed the crew to remove our posters, and saved and restore as best as possible the art underneath. In conversations – the Philly arts community were clearly made aware of this plan. We also suggested any artist we painted over could reach out directly to us, or if we got sent their links we would contact them w a solution. Instead, it went viral.
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We are still waiting to hear back from crew responsible for the paste ups, as to exactly how this happened and to find a resolution shortly.
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We apologise to anyone who has messaged us any not gotten a response – as we have received several hundred messages.
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In short: it was a mistake (Although weirdly feels somehow deliberate – and now we are caught in the jackpot.)
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We think we can fix. We are working hard to fix. We are not US based so still trying to get to bottom of this.
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As stated any artist whose work was covered by our paste ups and wanted to discuss – please contact us directly.
The damage is done, The apology appearing insincere and a little too late. Banner bashing the company for blaming “employees for doing exactly what you wanted them to do.” Street artist Kid Hazo responded with his own version of the failed Oat Milk campaign.
credit: Instagram
On April 16th, Minor Figures released another statement about the Philly debacle, essentially begging for the customers of Philadelphia to forgive them for this serious, likely costly mistake. Will they ever redeem themselves? Remains to be seen. Public Art advocates are calling for Minor Figures to put their money where their mouth is, funding a replenishment of community art pieces around the city.
The lessons here?
- The customer is always right.
- Be sincere in your communication and intentions from the beginning.
- Increase the number of stakeholder voices at the table when you’re creating a campaign.
- Know your audience
- DON’T MESS WITH PHILADELPHIA.
Did no one learn from HitchBOT?
credit: Twitter
U Penn Social Book 
Great Britain has a history of campaigns in America, such as taxation without representation, unreasonable searches and seizures, and trials without juries going badly for the island nation. Minor Figures is yet another one, no less perpetrated in the home of the Liberty Bell and the Birthplace of the Declaration of Independence. Note to our British friends across the pond, “time for Minor Figurexit.” Great post.