Midi Onodera

Monkey See Monkey Do

Meanwhile, the debate rages on.

“Monkey See Monkey Do” was inspired by a strange phenomenon I discovered while browsing through eBay. I noticed there was a large number of individual photographs for sale featuring children, usually young boys, pointing toy guns at the camera. These photographs ranged from Albumen prints to 1970s snapshots. Around this time, Wayne Lapierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association conducted a press conference expressing the NRA’s position on gun control after the Newtown Massacre. For this month, I posted the video under the category of Toys & Games featuring an image from an actual ad for a toy gun collection. Where possible a QR code was also posted and the URL to the Vidoodles site. The video received 101 page views with 26 returning visitors. 8 people used the QR code to access the Vidoodles site. So far, this is the only ad that has provoked an active response. I received an email that said in an angry tone, “WHAT IS THIS????

Posted February 1, 2013