The SingPost "acts of vandalism" on Mailboxes Saga

I have been following this piece of News since New year day. Apparently the "acts of vandalism" on mailboxes were done by SingPost as a publicity stunt. In the apology statement, the vice president, Marketing of SingPost, said: "As part of the YOG is also talking about self expressing, it's really about sports and arts. And sports and arts is really about expressing yourself and that's the core spirit of it."

Do this look like art to you?

* Photos credits to straitstimes.com & channelnewsasia.com

From how we are brought up in Singapore as a clean and Green City, these type of graffiti are label to Vandalism generally. How much more when it was done and caught done by a Masked man during the holiday cerebration in a full view of the pubic?

Even if it was meant to work by "viral marketing" - where awareness is raised via videos, messages or images being sent in a self-replicating "viral" process, the moment the general public who was constantly told to be vigilant from any suspicious character  saw a masked man doing such art related to vandalism will certainly caused unrest.

Isn't it better if the hired artist  wear a SingPost T-shirt and put an sign there making it clear that he is doing this for Youth Olympus for SingPost? If they want to attract the youth, why not hand such artistic stuff to the art school students to do that as a project? Plus the message in the graffiti has say nothing about the coming Youth Olympus Game. So SingPost making a public apology was part of the plan or was it suppose to go the other way? 

Regarding the graffiti on the mailbox, do you think it will bring in more "Customers"? What do they want the person to think or act when they saw such "design and messages" when they see the mailbox suppose if He/She is a youth?

"Wow that is cool! I feel like mailing some stuff today!" ?

I for one will feel insecure to put my mail into the mail box especially with the message "BOOMZ!" for the fear of losing my mail. I can't help it, it was the environment we were brought me up to be clean and proper. If it is for the coming Youth Olympic Games awareness, why not move to letters, stamps or posters on the mailbox? Isn't that more direct and more professional for Olympics?

Lastly there is only one common local postage in Singapore (unless you consider FedEx or DHL for parcel) so generally if  anyone who want to post anything have to go through SingPost. So is there still a need to do marketing for this even if you are a sponsor?

Obviously the marketing campaign had backfired to the general public. However if there is any consolation, it did get quite a lot of attention and we are more aware of the YOG in August knowing SingPost is one of the official sponsor who hired a masked man to spray their own mailbox hoping the new media will push such message around. For all you know, I am also play a part for creating the awareness for SingPost and YOG too with this article. :)

Wait...this is the second articles for YOG already. The first is Lyo and Merly.

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