In 1989, a bored kid at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) did something kind of stupid. He cut out a newspaper ad for Andre the Giant, stuck it on some paper, and wrote "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" next to it. That kid was Shepard Fairey. He wasn't trying to start a global revolution or become the guy who designed the Obama "Hope" poster. He was just teaching a friend how to make stencils.
It was a joke. A weird, inside joke that should have ended when the ink dried on the first batch of stickers. Instead, it became one of the most viral physical campaigns in history before the internet even existed.
The Andre has a posse phenomenon isn't just about a 7-foot-4 wrestler. It’s about how we consume images and why we feel the need to belong to something, even if that "something" doesn't actually mean anything. If you’ve ever seen a sticker on a stop sign and wondered why it was there, you’ve felt the ripples of what Fairey started in a cramped dorm room decades ago.
The Absurd Origin of the Giant
Honestly, the best part of the story is how accidental it all was. Shepard Fairey was a skater. In the late 80s, skate culture was built on DIY ethics—making your own boards, your own clothes, and your own zines. While hanging out with his friend Eric "Egg" Brunetti, Fairey found an image of the professional wrestler Andre the Giant in a newspaper.
He told Eric he should use it for a stencil. Eric thought it was dumb. To prove how easy it was, Shepard made the sticker himself.
The original design was crude. It featured Andre’s face—heavy-lidded, stoic, and slightly blurry—with his height (7' 4") and weight (520 lb) listed on the sides. The text "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" was scrawled in a way that looked like a street gang’s calling card.
People didn't get it. That was the point.
When Fairey started slapping these stickers all over Providence, Rhode Island, people reacted with genuine confusion. Was it a real gang? Was Andre the Giant coming to town? Was it a promotion for the WWF? Because there was no clear answer, people projected their own meanings onto it. Some found it threatening. Others found it hilarious. Most just kept looking for it.
Moving from Posse to Obey
By the early 90s, the "Posse" stickers were everywhere. But there was a problem. Titan Sports (now WWE) wasn't exactly thrilled about a college kid using their star's likeness without paying a cent. Threat of a lawsuit loomed.
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Fairey had to pivot.
Instead of quitting, he stripped the image down. He took the heavy features of Andre's face and stylized them into a stark, black-and-white icon. He removed the specific reference to the wrestler's name and replaced it with a single, aggressive command: OBEY.
This was the birth of the Obey Giant campaign.
The shift changed the project from a localized skater joke into a global experiment in phenomenology. Fairey was heavily influenced by Martin Heidegger’s theories on how we perceive objects. By placing the "Obey" face in public spaces where it didn't belong—billboards, bus stops, police cars—he forced people to question their surroundings.
Heidegger argued that we only truly "see" things when they break or stand out from their usual context. The Andre has a posse evolution did exactly that. It was a "glitch" in the urban landscape.
Why It Actually Worked (and Why It Still Does)
It’s easy to dismiss sticker art as vandalism, but what Fairey tapped into was the power of repetition. If you see one sticker, it’s trash. If you see 500 stickers in three different cities, it’s a movement.
Basically, Fairey turned himself into a one-man marketing agency for a product that didn't exist. This is what marketers now call "guerilla marketing," but in 1990, it was just being a nuisance.
- The Power of Mystery: Because the sticker didn't sell anything, people felt like they were "in" on a secret.
- The Cool Factor: Skaters and underground musicians adopted the imagery, giving it instant street cred.
- The Visual Punch: The high-contrast black and white face of the Giant is recognizable from a block away. It’s a perfect logo.
The project grew through a loose network of friends and fans. Fairey would mail "posse" kits to people in other cities. They would put them up, send back photos, and the cycle continued. It was a physical version of a "share" button. Long before Reddit or Instagram, the Andre has a posse stickers were the memes of the sidewalk.
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The Backlash and the Commercialization Debate
You can't talk about Shepard Fairey without talking about the "sell-out" accusations. As the Obey brand grew into a multi-million dollar clothing line, many in the street art community felt the original spirit of the "posse" was dead.
Critics like some of the contributors at Wooster Collective have argued over the years that once a street campaign becomes a t-shirt at the mall, it loses its power to subvert authority.
But Fairey has always been pretty transparent about this. He uses the money from the commercial side—Obey Clothing—to fund his large-scale murals and political activism. It’s a weird Catch-22. To have the resources to put up a 10-story mural that critiques corporate greed, you kind of have to be a bit of a corporation yourself.
Even with the fame, the core of the project remained rooted in that initial RISD experiment. The "posse" wasn't just about Andre; it was about the people who participated in the act of putting the stickers up. It was about taking ownership of public space.
Legal Troubles and the "Hope" Connection
While the Andre the Giant stickers started it all, most people know Fairey's style because of the 2008 Barack Obama "Hope" poster. It’s impossible to separate that poster from the Andre has a posse legacy. The "Hope" poster used the same stencil-heavy, high-contrast aesthetic that Fairey perfected while dodging cops in Providence.
However, the "Hope" poster also led to a massive legal battle with the Associated Press over fair use of a photograph. This wasn't the first time Fairey faced legal heat, but it was the most public. It highlighted a core tension in his work: the line between "appropriation art" and copyright infringement.
Fairey has often defended his work by citing the "remix" culture of hip-hop and skating. He views images as raw material to be recontextualized. Whether he’s using a picture of a wrestler or a politician, the goal is the same—to change how the viewer interacts with the image.
Real-World Impact: How to See It Today
If you go to a city like London, New York, or Berlin today, you will still see remnants of the "posse." Sometimes it’s a faded sticker on the back of a street sign. Sometimes it’s a massive mural commissioned by the city.
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The Andre has a posse campaign changed the career path for artists. It proved that you didn't need a gallery to be successful. You just needed a photocopier, some wheatpaste, and a lot of nerve.
Artists like Banksy, Invader, and JR all owe a massive debt to the "posse." They took the blueprint of repetitive, icon-based street art and ran with it. Before Shepard Fairey, street art was mostly graffiti—letters and names. After him, it became about "the icon."
Actionable Insights: Lessons from the Posse
Whether you’re an artist, a marketer, or just someone who likes history, there are real takeaways from this weird experiment.
1. Start Small and Cheap
Fairey didn't wait for a grant. He used a Xerox machine. If you have an idea, don't wait for "proper" tools. Use what’s in front of you.
2. Consistency is Everything
A single post, a single sticker, or a single video is nothing. The power of the Andre has a posse campaign was in the thousands. Repetition builds familiarity, and familiarity builds a following.
3. Embrace the Unknown
You don't always need a 10-page "Why" document. Sometimes, starting something because it’s fun or weird is enough. The meaning will often find itself later as people interact with what you’ve made.
4. Understand Your Environment
The "posse" stickers worked because they were placed in high-traffic, "illegal" spots. They demanded attention. Think about where your "audience" is looking and show up there in a way they don't expect.
5. Evolution is Mandatory
If Fairey had stuck with the original Andre the Giant Has a Posse design, he likely would have been sued into oblivion by 1995. By evolving into "Obey," he kept the spirit alive while building something more sustainable and legally (somewhat) safer.
The stickers might peel and the murals might get painted over, but the idea that a single image can command a "posse" of thousands remains the most powerful tool in modern culture. Shepard Fairey didn't just make a sticker; he created a way for people to talk back to the world around them. All it took was a wrestler's face and some glue.