The man certainly knows how to grab attention colorfully.
Two weeks after earning national attention with an oversize Crisco can display at the Joe Louis fist sculpture downtown, the local artist-provocateur who calls himself Jerry Vile has a slightly less flamboyant stunt in this week's Metro Times.
He bought space for a full-page ad announcing a "Motor City Going Out of Business Sale! . . . Biggest Bankruptcy Sale in U.S. History."
The design echoes and escalates every gaudy cliche of liquidation ads from furniture stores, appliance dealers and pretty much any distressed retailers. "Largest inventory of abandoned property on the planet," it proclaims. "Emergency liquidation prices on everything!"
There's humor ("copper not included" on homes) and plenty of political commentary, including this mock quote alongside a sketch of Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's head atop the Spirit of Detroit statue: "Krazy Kevyn says: 'I must be crazy to be selling this low, and with no regard for the people!' "
Jerry Vile and a friend "had what I consider a really fun day — and most of a night" creating the spoof ad published Wednesday.
Metro Times editor Bryan Gottlieb spoke to the West Bloomfield creator for a short item about his latest splash:
“A friend, who happens to be the best graphic person I have ever known in my life, more or less made it perfect and not only added to the design, but also to the writing,” Vile says of the joke ad.
“We sat down together and had what I consider a really fun day — and most of a night — and that made it good because the layout inspired new ideas. It’s not easy to look that shabby,” Vile says.
The ad appears hours before the end of an eBay auction of his five-foot Crisco can. That sale, reported by Deadline last week, has drawn 33 bids and was at $720 this morning. After online bidding ends at 5:30 p.m., the last three hours of the auction will be conducted live Wednesday from 6-9 p.m. at the Jazz Cafe at the Music Hall in downtown Detroit.
