Crazy-eyed auteur/marketing genius Vincent Gallo defends The Big Brown Bunny Billboard in today's NYT. People shouldn't get bent out of shape by the enormous depiction of his on-camera blowjob because it's some twisted form of "truth in advertising":

Mr. Gallo said the image was no more provocative than those on ads commonly placed by Calvin Klein and Gucci at the same spot. "Mine is not an advertisement for a product where the advertisement and the product have no relationship," he said. "The advertisement and the film have a direct relationship."

So the next time you see a Calvin Klein billboard with a hungry-looking model getting a faceful of another model's penis, he wants to hear the outrage because of the hummer's tenuous relationship to the perfume it's selling. Got it?

Another interesting fact in the Times: The article claims that Wellspring Media, the film's distributor, paid $50,000 to put up the billboard for a month. But Gallo recently told the audience of a Detroit screening that he purchased it with his own money. It's OK, Vincent, we get a little confused after a good blowjob too.

• Art? Smut? Commerce? Billboard Gets Attention [NYT]


• The Brown Bunny Billboard [Defamer]

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