They didn't get Banksy, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers may think they've nabbed the next-best thing to promote their new album, I'm With You. Mr Brainwash, the harebrained protagonist of Banksy's film Exit Through The Giftshop, has been hired to paste street-art adverts for the album across Los Angeles.
A month before I'm With You goes on sale, the gossip site TMZ spotted Mr Brainwash with a pile of posters and some glue, hard at work at the side of the road. The French artist is using robots and old-timey portraits to push the Red Hot Chili Peppers' funk, adorning each print with the band's logo and the album's release date. He and the Peppers "are teaming up on several more projects", he claimed, although there is no mention of any forthcoming work with them on his website.
When Exit Through the Giftshop was released, there was speculation about whether Mr Brainwash was real. In the Oscar-nominated documentary, he seemed less a real person than a metaphor for street-art's hysterical commercialisation. But Brainwash has a name – Thierry Guetta – and it appears he is real enough to be sued. In 2009, he also reportedly designed the cover of Madonna's greatest hits collection.
Despite Mr Brainwash's involvement in the LA advertising campaign, the Peppers won't need his help for I'm With You's album art. They announced the cover photo last week – a shot of a housefly and a pill, by Damien Hirst. All they need now is a music video by Matthew Barney.
