Urban art sometimes known as graffiti is a style of art that relates to cities and city life often done by artists who live in or have a passion for city life. The term urban means "from the city". Sometimes Urban art is called "street art". The style of this art is mostly cartoon based, and sometimes realistic. The art is sometimes viewed as vandalism and destruction of property. Even though sometimes this form of art leads to vandalism it can be useful. The band Gorillaz uses a urban art style to promote their band. The band members are animated in a graffiti style. This style has also been used by many bands recently, promoting their band for little to no costs to them.

Another use is for ad campaigns promoting an unlimited number of products or services. One of the most successful viral ad campaigns using urban art was in 1989 by Shepard Fairey. He created an image of Andre the Giant to be used be skaters and others. The promotion was called obey the giant and has even gained so much popularity to have a website created in the name of just the design. http://obeygiant.com. The urban art style has an unlimited number of uses and its basic crowd focus is male teenagers.

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Graffiti (singular: graffito; the plural is used as a mass noun) is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is any type of public markings that may appear in the forms of simple written words to elaborate wall paintings. Graffiti has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. In modern times, spray paint, normal paint and markers have become the most commonly used materials. In most countries, defacing property with graffiti without the property owner's consent is considered vandalism, which is punishable by law. Sometimes graffiti is employed to communicate social and political messages. To some, it is an art form worthy of display in galleries and exhibitions; to others it is merely vandalism. Graffiti has since evolved into a pop culture existence often related to underground hip hop music and b-boying creating a lifestyle that remains hidden from the general public. Graffiti can be used as a gang signal to mark territory or to serve as an indicator or "tag" for gang-related activity. The controversies that surround graffiti continue to create disagreement amongst city officials/law enforcement and graffitists looking to display their work in public locations. There are many different types and styles of graffiti and it is a rapidly developing artform whose value is highly contested, being reviled by many authorities while also subject to protection, sometimes within the same jurisdiction.