Bambi 🇬🇧 Street Art • Print Release • Art For Sale, by Chris JL on Jun 23, 2021 23:07:29 GMT 1,

Jun 23, 2021 14:20:17 GMT 1 met said:

Jun 21, 2021 17:49:00 GMT 1 Chris JL said:

She was unfortunately (for her own good) introduced with that moniker (the female Banksy) in a BBC service, and then that was repeated by the press (to her own detriment).
I believe that that “title” did not help her much…

I'm always happy to be proven wrong. As a truth-seeker, the motivation is more about getting it right than being right.


Which BBC service in particular?

It's a point of interest to me, because the BBC is one of the platforms I had in my crosshairs when stating above that reference to "the female Banksy" was parroted by lazy, ignorant and/or dishonest journalists.


I myself don't believe the clickbait comparison to Banksy was coined by or originated with the BBC. Instead, like many others (including CNN, The Guardian and The Daily Mail), the BBC appears to have just allowed itself to be used — by echoing, uncritically and without fact-checking, a PR tagline it was fed. And in doing so, the corporation also contributed to a fake-news snowball effect: It further bolstered the perceived accuracy of coattail-riding guff that was originally conceived by Bambi's own representatives.

Even references that are more cautiously worded, such as "Dubbed 'the female Banksy'", are misleading half-truths at best.

The same applies for the list of purported Bambi-collecting celebrities that the likes of Walton Fine Arts and Lenny Villa (Bambi's ex-manager) would spout ad nauseum to whomever listened. There were blatant lies as well, like Villa's claims in 2013* that Bambi is an international pop star who's sold millions of records, or that her paintings were selling "for anything up to £100,000."


Everybody can be deceived. And quite often with great ease. When falsehoods are repeated enough times, especially by multiple sources, they start to become viewed as facts. Marketing 101.

__________


Our opinions differ on the subject of how valuable "the female Banksy" has been to Bambi.

From what I've witnessed, that easily-memorable, forced association with a famous, talented artist — one who commands exceptional levels of media and public interest — has been terrifically successful for Bambi. This, in terms of press attention it has garnered, perception of artistic credibility (again, by association, at least in the eyes of novice or otherwise uninformed collectors), and the presumably increased number of primary and secondary-market sales resulting therefrom.

I would argue that "the female Banksy" has been a parasitic lifeline for Bambi.

She and her dealers have been dining on it for a good decade now. And seemingly without shame.

Let me try to find the clip (I think it was even on here at some point). The BBC just repeating a PR line is well possible - the “lazy” journalist theory is not unlikely.

Honestly not sure about that moniker helping her tbh: 1) a hard benchmark to compare oneself; 2) de facto implies a lower degree of originality - otherwise Banksy would be the male Bambi (I can’t believe I’m writing this 😊); 3) makes gender a salient characteristic, and that normally does not help; 4) and, at least around Shoreditch, I’ve heard that only used as mockery.

But I see your point about the broader audience marketing value, and I think it has merit - albeit her market never really took off much (at least relative to what that comparison would imply). But obviously, in the absence of a counterfactual, it’s hard to assess the commercial effect of that label.

Jun 23, 2021 14:20:17 GMT 1 met said:

Jun 21, 2021 17:49:00 GMT 1 Chris JL said:

She was unfortunately (for her own good) introduced with that moniker (the female Banksy) in a BBC service, and then that was repeated by the press (to her own detriment).
I believe that that “title” did not help her much…

I'm always happy to be proven wrong. As a truth-seeker, the motivation is more about getting it right than being right.


Which BBC service in particular?

It's a point of interest to me, because the BBC is one of the platforms I had in my crosshairs when stating above that reference to "the female Banksy" was parroted by lazy, ignorant and/or dishonest journalists.


I myself don't believe the clickbait comparison to Banksy was coined by or originated with the BBC. Instead, like many others (including CNN, The Guardian and The Daily Mail), the BBC appears to have just allowed itself to be used — by echoing, uncritically and without fact-checking, a PR tagline it was fed. And in doing so, the corporation also contributed to a fake-news snowball effect: It further bolstered the perceived accuracy of coattail-riding guff that was originally conceived by Bambi's own representatives.

Even references that are more cautiously worded, such as "Dubbed 'the female Banksy'", are misleading half-truths at best.

The same applies for the list of purported Bambi-collecting celebrities that the likes of Walton Fine Arts and Lenny Villa (Bambi's ex-manager) would spout ad nauseum to whomever listened. There were blatant lies as well, like Villa's claims in 2013* that Bambi is an international pop star who's sold millions of records, or that her paintings were selling "for anything up to £100,000."


Everybody can be deceived. And quite often with great ease. When falsehoods are repeated enough times, especially by multiple sources, they start to become viewed as facts. Marketing 101.

__________


Our opinions differ on the subject of how valuable "the female Banksy" has been to Bambi.

From what I've witnessed, that easily-memorable, forced association with a famous, talented artist — one who commands exceptional levels of media and public interest — has been terrifically successful for Bambi. This, in terms of press attention it has garnered, perception of artistic credibility (again, by association, at least in the eyes of novice or otherwise uninformed collectors), and the presumably increased number of primary and secondary-market sales resulting therefrom.

I would argue that "the female Banksy" has been a parasitic lifeline for Bambi.

She and her dealers have been dining on it for a good decade now. And seemingly without shame.

Let me try to find the clip (I think it was even on here at some point). The BBC just repeating a PR line is well possible - the “lazy” journalist theory is not unlikely.

Honestly not sure about that moniker helping her tbh: 1) a hard benchmark to compare oneself; 2) de facto implies a lower degree of originality - otherwise Banksy would be the male Bambi (I can’t believe I’m writing this 😊); 3) makes gender a salient characteristic, and that normally does not help; 4) and, at least around Shoreditch, I’ve heard that only used as mockery.

But I see your point about the broader audience marketing value, and I think it has merit - albeit her market never really took off much (at least relative to what that comparison would imply). But obviously, in the absence of a counterfactual, it’s hard to assess the commercial effect of that label.