The Biggest Ad in the World?

After the long weekend, I'm catching up on links friends and readers have sent me. Artist Erik Nordenankar shipped a GPS device by DHL to create this giant tracking self-portrait (according to the project website, appropriately titled "biggestdrawingintheworld.com"):

This video shows how he did it:

My first question was prosaic: how could anyone afford to do this? I figured it was some wealthy Silicon Valley hobbyist's idea - how could an art student afford the shipping fees? Not unexpectedly, it turns out the project was conceived as both art and ad - Nordenankar describes it as "advertising adapted to the contemporary era. a campaign the recipient wants to see and which is interesting enough for people to want to share it with their friends."

I don't find this off-putting - artists have always had patrons, and if Nordenankar can persuade a huge corporation to pay him to scrawl his face across the planet, more power to him! On the other hand, as The Register notes, "Well, it is interesting, but we reckon DHL and Nordenankar may now be able to add the world's largest carbon footprint to their trophy cabinet." True. What price art. . .

Thanks to Janeen for the heads-up!