http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5310416.stm

Paris Hilton targeted in CD prank

Hundreds of Paris Hilton albums have been tampered with in the latest stunt by "guerrilla artist" Banksy.

Banksy has replaced Hilton's CD with his own remixes and given them titles such as Why am I Famous?, What Have I Done? and What Am I For?

He has also changed pictures of her on the CD sleeve to show the US socialite topless and with a dog's head.

A spokeswoman for Banksy said he had doctored 500 copies of her debut album Paris in 48 record shops across the UK.

She told the BBC News website: "He switched the CDs in store, so he took the old ones out and put his version in."

But he left the original barcode so people could buy the CD without realising it had been interfered with.

Banksy is notorious for his secretive and subversive stunts such as sneaking doctored versions of classic paintings into major art galleries.

His spokeswoman said he had tampered with the CDs in branches of HMV and Virgin as well as independent record stores.

He visited cities including Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and London, she added.

A spokesman for HMV said the chain had recovered seven CDs from two Brighton shops but was unaware that other locations were affected.

Artistic leeway

No customers had complained or returned a doctored version, he said.

"It's not the type of behaviour you'd want to see happening very often," he said.

"I guess you can give an individual such as Banksy a little bit of leeway for his own particular brand of artistic engagement.

"Often people might have a view on something but feel they can't always express it, but it's down to the likes of Banksy to say often what people think about things.

"And it might be that there will be some people who agree with his views on the Paris Hilton album."

A spokesman for Virgin Megastores said staff were searching for affected CDs but it was proving hard to find them all.

"I have to take my hat off - it's a very good stunt," he added.

score one for the good guys...

ha ha.

score two: apparently the new Dears record beat out her sales at the downtown HMV here in Toronto.


Thanks for posting this dnorwood.

awesome.

That's hot.

Though what he's doing there is tampering with merchandise and stealing. With artistic license, apparently.

banksy is awesome.

fyi, photos from the prank can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharl/sets ... 266743665/

Fun-eeee.

he made a video of the whole thing. it's on his site:
www.banksy.co.uk

Any of these things on eBay yet?

I saw a few sites where people were selling them.

So Danger Mouse was the one who remixed it? That guy needs a drug addiction or something.

yeah, one was on ebay for about $2,260 last night.

good god...

Man, I wish I had one of these. The art is awesome.

Here is the vid on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxUl9Mxbh1E

you really think so?
i thought the stunt was funny/intersting but the execution was pretty half assed.
edit: visually, the music is hilarious.

i agree, visually it doesnt stand up to his other work, but for sheer audacity...i give him the gold