"I would rather die standing up than live life on my knees " _ A stencilled quotation of Che Guevara on BT KX100 telephone kiosk in Liverpool, Merseyside, UK


Over the last couple of years, across Liverpool, unusual graffiti styled lettering has appeared in odd places. It took a while for people to really notice and it’s only since last autumn when there seemed to be more and more of it that it registered widely. The question was- what does it mean? Surely this was some subversive political or social campaign? Under the heading `Sine Missione` there are well known quotes by culturally historic figures such as Martin Luther King, Bob Marley and others. These appear in a stencil style writing reminiscent of certain types of street art but are uniform in colour. They sit on walls or on the side of those metal cable holders or even on the outside of pubs, exactly where you might expect to find graffiti. However is it graffiti at all? People have been puzzling about them and unlike most things Googling will not necessarily provide the answer. In fact if you Google `Sine Missione` you’ll discover it is the title of the first album by- wait for this- a Dutch Pagan folk band! In fact the Sine Missione graffiti is an innovative advertising campaign by a Liverpool based T Shirt company though you wonder how successful it is if people have trouble finding out about it! The company has been going since 2014 and describe their T Shirts as having a deep and meaningful message on them. 10% of their profits go to charities such as Help for Heroes and the British Legion. The moniker Sine Missione is actually a Latin phrase translating as “without mercy” and its origins relate to Roman gladiatorial combat in which there was no possibility of a reprieve for a particular person in the contest. So it does seem a bit of an odd name for a clothing company. I'm not sure of the value of this kind of guerilla advertising. There's no clue on the ads that it even is an ad and as mentioned above you've a one in three chance of even coming up with the fact that it's a clothing brand if you search fo the name.


Size: 2171px × 3256px
Location: Liverpool, Merseyside, UK
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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