Gum Democracy

Gum Election is a guerrilla art project which kicked off in New York City in October 2008. Claiming to install “modern democracy” in public space, the project was aimed to encourage people to vote in 2008’s presidential election, and also not to spit out their chewing gums carelessly on the Big Apple’s already dirty pavements.

Posters were taped to walls and lamp posts at more than 50 hot spots throughout the city, enabling passers-by to put their gum on their least favorite candidate’s face. Gum Election became so popular that posters also popped up in other cities in the United States and even abroad.

After two and a half years Gum Election is back on the streets of New York, pitting AT&T against the newly iPhone-capable Verizon Wireless. “Let us know who sucks the most: AT&T or Verizon.” The project’s initiators encourage people to bring the “the new battle for mobile service sovereignty” to their own city: “Print out the poster, put it up and send us pictures of it”. Click here to download your version!

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