Budweiser promises to restore art it plastered with Messi murals

The beer brand had painted over street art in Delhi and Mumbai, inviting social media outrage

The walls of Delhi and Mumbai recently became a theatre of disagreement between a street art organisation and a high-profile beer brand.

St+art India Foundation, which works with artists and has created public art in several cities, took to Instagram on April 3 to accuse Budweiser India of putting out murals on top of its existing paintings, thereby obliterating the earlier works.

For instance, in place of what was one of its earliest abstract murals painted on a primary school wall in Delhi’s Hauz Khas Village, now there are a couple of paintings on superstar footballer Lionel Messi. Similarly, on Chapel Road in Mumbai’s Bandra area, nine-year-old murals of screen legend Madhubala and one depicting a still from the film Anarkali (1953) were painted over with images of Messi.

St+art India, which has been beautifying public spaces by turning unadorned façades into canvases, questioned the ethics of the beer brand doing this and even advertising on a school wall. It asserted in the post, “This is blatant advertising in the name of street art.”

After St+art’s “open message” on Instagram, which triggered social media outrage against the beer company, Budweiser India reached out to the New Delhi-based non-profit organisation.

Business Standard contacted Budweiser for its response in the matter and was told that the company would be issuing a statement. Later that evening, on April 5, Budweiser posted a statement on Instagram stressing that it has always believed in the power of art and has worked with several artists. “As part of curating these murals, we reached out to multiple artists including St+art India, and collaborated with artists that met our creative and commercial direction through these illustrations that they curated over months and even restored the walls,” the company said.

On April 8, it issued another statement acknowledging the hurt caused to the “artists and the street art community”, adding that it empathises with them and that its intent was to inspire fans by showcasing the journey of Messi. “Doing so we have inadvertently hurt sentiments; we have reached out to the artists of the original artworks…and will work together to restore these walls — all in good faith,” it said.

With Budweiser owning up, St+art India Co-founder Hanif Kureshi said that there had been “enough of a backlash” and the artists do not intend to hurt any people or brand. “We have been seeing ads on walls; this became an issue only because of the way it was done,” he said.

Last month, the beer brand launched a campaign to celebrate the Argentine icon’s life. It included custom-designed Messi bottles and wall murals depicting his early teenage, when he moved to Spain, and subsequent association with the Catalan club of Barcelona.

Ideally, Kureshi said, St+art would like to invite the artists to reproduce their works. One of them is Ranjit Dahiya, graphic designer and founder of the Bollywood Art Project, who was involved with the Bandra murals. But Kureshi is unsure about whether Okuda San Miguel, a Spanish painter and sculptor who was behind the Hauz Khas Village paintings created in 2014, would be able to travel under the current circumstances.

Besides creating street art in places like Delhi’s Lodhi Colony and Hauz Khas Village, St+art has also transformed Mumbai’s Sassoon dock with wall murals, installations, photo-stories and graffiti created in collaboration with over 40 artists from across the world to depict the lives of the Kolis, Banjaras and Marathas.

According to Kureshi, Budweiser had had a conversation last August about commissioning murals on Messi, but St+art was interested in more artistic projects.

There is art in Budweiser’s wall paintings, but they are in essence “decal stickers” (decorative stickers bearing digitally designed elements), he said, adding that St+art wants the brand to work directly with the artists.

St+art India has worked with several brands including Asian Paints, which has been a vision partner since 2014. However, Kureshi clarified, it has never advertised any product on its murals.

While corporate support is essential for the urban contemporary street art scene to flourish, St+art India, he said, understands that streets and walls are open to all. Several murals accomplished by St+art artists in urban villages such as Shahpur Jat in New Delhi have disappeared because of changes in building structures. “Artists are not guardians of the street; the walls are open for people to view or alter,” said Kureshi.

What it also implies is that, speaking legally, artists or advertisers can use walls for paintings provided they get permission from the owner, occupier or — in case of public property — civic authorities concerned.

The legalities aside, in this case it’s the street artists who have prevailed over a brand that was quick to address the ethics of art and advertising.