The Street Artist Who Won’t Quit: The Story Of Shepard Fairey

Fairey’s First Encounters With The Law

With the popularity of the André the Giant stencil growing, Fairey began to see how the law could interfere with his art. Titan Sports, Inc. threatened to sue Fairey in 1994 for using the trademarked name “André the Giant.” Fairey responded by creating an even more iconic stencil of André the Giant’s face pasting the slogan “OBEY” underneath. “When I came up with the tagline ‘OBEY’ for my work, it was based on the idea that there are forces all around us that have agendas, but they are frequently unspoken,” Fairey explained to Interview. “I thought it would make people think about all the mechanisms of control out there.”