Looks to me there is just as much mud and crud under the "powerwashed" figure than there is on the rest of the side walk. It's like the figure is just laid atop the nasty sidewalk. Maybe it's an early rendition for real ads, but this sure ain't right.

If they powerwashed the sidewalk, wouldn't the lighter area be the cleaner area? And if that is the case, how come the letters are dark? How could they powerwash around a bunch of letter stencils and all of the stencils stay in place? Not gonna happen. This is fake, IMO.

The lettering is in the Apple font called "Chicago"

Good point thephrog. The 'body' denotes where the stencil was cut out and the surrounding area would have been covered, as would have been the lettering. There is no 'stencil' connection between the letters or between the letters and the border. The only way this could have been done is to affix each letter individually, which seems a major pain. The only way this would work is in reverse, with the washed areas being the area surrounding the body and the letters themselves.

My guess is the photoshopper simply forgot what stencils actually look like.

There's no reason the body can't be powerwashed through a stencil and the words stamped with water-soluble paint.

Had they come up with a stencil for letters that small, the power washer would likely not have made readable words on most surfaces and would have had trouble with moving the letter stencil around becuse of the small size.

It would be easier to wash in a light area on the sidewalk with bleach than to haul a power-washer around all over town.
Then the letters could be stamped on, as EricK said, or a sticker with the text could be applied.
Or a light-colored (but translucent) sticker with text included could be prepared ahead, and then pasted down on the pavement in a matter of seconds.

I noticed this very thing happen more than once this week.

You know, lots of times ad agencies mock up these "guerilla campaigns" in advance to show the client, or to pitch the idea in the first place. I know, I've done it myself. I have used photoshop to do things just like this to sell a client on a wacky idea like this.

So it makes it harder for hoax sites like this. Since what's in the photograph is possible physically and tactically, it seems real. However, it might not really BE real -- yet.

PlantPerson: I was about to say that!

"So it makes it harder for hoax sites like this." Au contraire, it makes it easier for hoax sites like this -- all sites crave for visitors, and all visitors crave for content. More fakes => more content => more visitors. Imagine the opposite: no hoaxes -- now THAT would be tough for the MoH...

About 45 years ago one of the big national magazines, LIFE or LOOK I think, hung a load of wash out and photographed it over a week. At the end of the week it was totally destroyed by pollution. I haven't been to Chicago in a long while, but I bet the air is a hell of a lot cleaner now than then. One point about the "figures" on the sidewalk, unless the photos were taken right away, people walking on them would screw them up quickly. Besides, how often would people look down and actually read the things?

It always happened!!

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