For over decades, Singaporeans are accustomed to seeing plain white post boxes that are easy to ignore and walk past. Not any more! 6 post boxes nation-wide have been splattered, sprayed and 'graffiti-ed' with spray paint.

The parties involved in this recent project are Singpost and a local events agency A Group Of People who were engaged to carry out a marketing campaign centered on the YOG theme, Express Youself. And of course, no publicity stunt is complete without the public.

The local events agency apparently sent 'INKMAN', a shadowy masked figure, to do the spray-painting job. Some said that it was a waste of valuable resources, and that it might spark or encourage vandalism.
I beg to differ. Singpost was only being supportive of the YOG, and took into consderation the theme of self-expression. Graffiti is a form of self-expression. This publicity stunt is evident that Singaporeans lack a sense of appreciation towards self-expression. Isn't it ironic then that the international event YOG, which will be held in Singapore, is given that theme?

Furthermore, the aim of Singpost was to make post boxes more relevant to the youths in today's society, and also to garner publicity for itself. I do not quite agree with the author who labelled the project as 'a publicity stunt that backfired'. There is no such thing as bad publicity. There can only be good publicity. News about Singpost's publicity stunt flooded newspapers for weeks. Isn't that good publicity?

Most Singaporeans think that the publicity stunt was a bad idea to begin with. True, there are many other ways Singpost could have garnered attention, and many other ways it could have expressed itself. For example, sending a simple postcard to every household or organising a sports competitition to warm up for the YOG (Singpost can engage a sports organisation to liase with).

Graffiti is indeed art. Graffiti existed since cavemen engraved figures and characters on cave walls. In our society today, graffiti is associated to rebellion and the hip hop culture. People create a work of art on public property to express themselves to the public. if they do not want their work to be seen by others, i'm sure they have sufficient coloured markers and paper at home.

Many artists have pulled publicity stunts to draw attention to a particular issue.
Let's take Tang Da Wu for example. In August 1995, the President of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong visited an exhibition by Singapore artists. Tang wore a black jacket emblazoned on the back with "Don't give money to the arts" in yellow and handed a note to the President that read, "I am an artist. I am important." Although Tang was prevented from speaking to the President by an aide-de-camp, he later told the media he wished to tell the President that artists are important and that public money funded the "wrong kind of art", art that was too commercial and had no taste.
Since art is about expressing oneself, sending a message across and bringing light to a particular issue, the publicity stunt pulled by SingPost can be considered as art.

We often hear about how the art scene in Singapore is growing. What better way of doing it than literally bringing art to the people? rather than bringing the people to art in the form of museums and exhibitions. If society itself cannot accept this small artistic gesture, the relationship between art and society in Singapore is precarious.

This incident has revealed that Singaporeans are non-tolerant and conservative. No surprise there. The public rarely reacts positively towards public art gestures. Society either ignores or makes a big deal out of public art. Remember when millions of dollars went into 'renovating' the Orchard Road area? with huge frosted glass every now and then along the stretch of shopping malls? Initially it was criticised for its insignificance, now its just ignored.

Back to the topic, yes, some people believed that the publicity stunt could have sparked off more vandalism. However, this does not mean that we are distrusting of one another. Being Singaporeans, we are naturally concerned about such things and prefer to be safe than sorry.