This Is A Heavy Product
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"This Is A Heavy Product" is the text on a series of printed stickers that have appeared on walls, street signs, trains and public fixtures throughout Australia and other parts of the world in the 2000s. (See Sticker art.)
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[edit] The stickers
The stickers in question are circular, about 6–8 cm in diameter, and printed in black and white on vinyl, and were apparently designed for industrial purposes. They feature a simplified line drawing of a worker struggling to lift a bucket, beneath which is the eponymous text.
[edit] The phenomenon
It is not known exactly how This Is A Heavy Product stickers made the transition from industrial stock to street phenomenon. The stickers began appearing on public fixtures in Melbourne in large quantities some years ago; at one stage, it was almost rare to see a train or tram without a sticker. Subsequently, they have appeared in other Australian cities and elsewhere in the world. There have been reports of stickers in Bangkok, London, Manchester, Birmingham and Vienna.
In 2003, a photocopied zine titled This Is A Heavy Product came out in Melbourne. It was dedicated to the stickers, featured photographs of them in various locations worldwide, and had a competition, inviting readers to send in photographs of the stickers in interesting locations, the winner to receive a T-shirt printed with the design. To further these purposes, one sticker was provided with each copy. The zine was published by Knee Length Productions, also responsible for another zine named GFPMD.
Also in 2003, Man Bites Dog, a novel by Australian author Adam Ford set in various inner-city suburbs of Melbourne, featured a subplot involving the two main characters' quest to discover the identity of the person responsible for the This Is A Heavy Product stickers. Ford has set up a gallery of photographs of This Is A Heavy Product stickers on his web site, and has invited others to submit their own photos of the stickers in situ. As an enticement, Ford has offered to send copies of his own zines to anyone who submits a photo.
- The stickers were produced by V/Line and used in the old west Melbourne freight depot, a building later explored by the Cave Clan. Approximately 12,000 stickers were gathered by the Cave Clan elite and distributed throughout Melbourne. Some were later distributed by Cave Clan members Gillian, Bob and Siologen to Bangkok, Europe, the United States and Canada. The sticker motif was reproduced on to t-shirts and sold along side Cave Clan t-shirts in a shop run by Cave Clan members in Northcote, Melbourne, Australia during late 2000 and early 2001.
[edit] Rumours
In addition to what is publicly known about the phenomenon, several rumours have circulated about it. Some of the more prominent ones are reproduced below.
- It has long been rumoured that the Cave Clan is somehow connected to the stickers. This is plausible, because the Cave Clan is known for its own stickers (albeit smaller ones, printed on a computer). Also, there are connections between Knee Length Productions, the publishers of the zine, and the Cave Clan. Those connected with the Cave Clan have, at times, denied the organisation's connection to the stickers. But they are less than truthful. It is also possible that the stickers were initially the personal project of a Cave Clan member but have not been approved by the organisation as a whole.
- One rumour concerning the origin of the stickers is that the originators of the phenomenon stole a large number of them from a building site or similar. Given that there was, for a time, a lull in the appearance of the stickers, it is not clear whether all the stickers would have originated in this theft, or whether, once the meme took off, those involved subsequently started buying or printing their own.
- The exact number of stickers put up is unknown, but said to be in the hundreds of thousands.
- The stickers are said to be very difficult to remove, due to the strength of the adhesive. This has led to reports of a parody sticker bearing the legend "This Is A Sticky Product".
