Haha! when I first saw this I thought it was some sort of printing mistake that made it all the way to the billboard. see more ads corrected by daniel soares

Here are Scott Beal's photos from last night’s opening of Détournement: Signs of the Times, a sign-themed group art show curated by Carlo McCormick at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York City. The show runs through August 25 and includes work from Billboard Liberation Front, Ron English, Shepard Fairey, TrustoCorp and many others.

Seattle Burger King Billboard Gets Diabetes Graffiti

Someone has graffitied this Burger King billboard in downtown Seattle to transform it into criticism about how sugary fast food contributes to diabetes and the obesity crisis.

The original billboard does that classic advertising trick of getting away with making a joke while still promoting an idea that's not so great for you, which is to eat more deserts at Burger King.

The billboard shows an ice cream cone, a parfait, a milkshake and then a Burger King logo. Underneath the items in progression it says "side," "entree," and "drink." To modify it into a commentary, on the logo, the vandalizer drink a bloated person with a frowny face and x-ed out eyes. Below it they scrawled, "diabetes."

the consumerist

via: COPCWA

haha! shit the reagans say.

haha! shit the reagans say., originally uploaded by evilsigntist.

Just saw this billboard correction this morning. It's an ad in support of Prop 19 to legalize marijuana in CA.

If you read the details, Prop 19 is actually a step backward from legalizing marijuana

BLF Advertising for Phillip Morris

My_Life_after, originally uploaded by Billboard Liberation Front.

Billboard Liberation Front partners with Wachovia Bank

Watch your little ones burn.... Way to Fail....

Read the whole story here
see it on flicker here

related posts:
billboards
economics



Posted using ShareThis

Deadline Express - Exploding Billboard

Here's the extended version of the video posted Gizmodo showing the set-up and behind the scenes, in addition to illustrating the viral marketing impact(npi)




via:
gizmodo

Deceit - on NPR

My first ever live radio appearance has been archived on the NRP website. I was interviewed by Ben Furstenberg about billboard correction and signage related pranks, for his show. Click the link below to listen to me and several other "experts" giving their take on "Deceit"

The ins and outs, the ups and downs, the good and bad of deceit: that was what Neighborhood Public Radio was all about in April.

“Pranks, lies and conspiracies, corporate malfeasance, government collusion, interpersonal dishonesties, religious institutions,” said Ben Furstenberg at the outset of the day, it’s all deceit. Furstenberg curated this month’s broadcast at Southern Exposure.

Music, lies, talk about lies, talk about honesty…it’s all laid out below for your listening pleasure from the pranksters on the mic on April 14th 2007.

“Respectable Citizen” opened the day with their brand of experimental electronic music. Bruce Bennett, Byron Deal and Michael Zbyszynski filled the gallery and the airwaves with swirling sounds and monk-like chanting.

link to the audio file:
RC06- Deceit

links to sign pranksters:
rob cockerman
billboard liberation front
ron english
graffiti research lab
packard jennings

AT&T killed the thylacines

AT&T killed the thylacines
Originally uploaded by evilsigntist.

I spotted this one this morning at 23rd and Valencia on and AT&T billboard. The thylacine was the largest of the carnivorous marsupials that become extinct in the 1920s due to the encroachment of mankind...and AT&T.

Pranks 2 Book Release Party and Show

I'm so excited that the new Pranks 2 book is out. The first Pranks book, was one of the biggest influences in my decision to move to the bay area six years ago.

November 11, 2006
07:00 PM - 10:00 PM

San Francisco Art Institute
800 Chestnut Street
Auditorium and Cafe
San Francisco, CA 94133

Celebrating RE/SEARCH’s New Book: PRANKS 2San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut, S.F., CA* PRANKSFEST with rare videos, special guests TBA ** Videorama with live narrations by Pranksters* * BIllboard Liberation Front, Cyclecide, Cacophony Society, * Women of SRL, YES Men * * Happenings, Performance Art, Surprises! *with Mal Sharpe as your emceeJust $5 or FREE with purchase of Pranks 2 book ($20)

more info on:
LaughingSquid

ad observations from bluejake

from bluejake yesterday:

In five years, every square foot of street-facing frontage downtown is going to be covered in advertising. Every corner will be a mini-Times Square, and you will be able to rent out a billboard for $5/month. It's an absurd way to live, but I don't see it changing.

Jake Dobkin is the publisher and cofounder of Gothamist, the creator of streetsy, and a core member of the New York Photobloggers

NSFW

Violet Blue puts the S.F in N.S.F.W.

Recently one of my very best friends was the subject of a Billboard Liberation Front attack. Violet Blue is the first ever sex columnist for the
SF Chronicle.
It seems that the BLF took it upon themselves to promote Violet's column
"Open Source Sex" with bus shelter posters, as well as signage on the buses themselves. The idea, I think aw to parody the opening segment of "Sex and the City" where the main character see's herself on a bus ad, and freaks out. The bus shelter pictured here, is across the street from the Chronicle's offices. Here are several links to pieces relating to the prank.
Congratulations Violet!

on boingboing

on tinynibbles


the NEW boingboingboing podcast

on laughing squid

on MetroBlogs

Live Richly Parody

CitiBank sucks for a lot of reasons. They were asking for it, when they chose to use the slogan "Live Richly." April Winchell ask her readers for some ideas for billboard corrections, then her boyfriend John photoshopped the winners into billboard photographs.

via:
Violet
and:
ChrisO

Culture Jamming with Other Cinema

at Artists' Television Access
992 Valencia Street SF
8:30pm $5

SAT. 4/22: PRANKS AND INTERVENTIONS

In the first of a pair of culture-jamming gigs, we host three incendiary media miscreants and a mixed bag of new (and old) tricks. In a mid-career retrospective of the Keatonesque Tom Borden, we witness his gutsy, occasionally scatological performances, spanners in the works of the commercial machine. Also slated is the Metavid project, a 30-min. show n’ tell by Michael Dale and Aphid, who have managed to hack the C-SPAN closed-caption window, inputting critical info on featured Congressmen in real-time. The jam-boree kicks off with a set of inspired and inspiring guerrilla tactical jokes from the Yes Men, the Biotic Baking Brigade, a Boston Tea Party-crasher, and prankster godfather Joey Skaggs. Broadcast live by Neighborhood Public Radio.

and....

SAT. 4/29: BILLBOARD LIBERATION FRONT PRESENTS POPAGANDA

In the second installment of our Pranks series, the BLF, those storied stalwarts of late-night billboard alteration, surface in our gallery—merry, masked, and Mayday-mobilized, to introduce Pedro Carvajal’s POPaganda. Pedro’s hr-plus doc focuses on the antics of painter Ron English, a modern-day Robin Hood of Madison Ave., who renders an alternative universe of advertising subversion. Shepard Fairey, Daniel Johnston, and the Dandy Warhols also have a hand in the production. PLUS Craig Baldwin’s history of billboard hits, Bryan Boyce’s latest celebrity defenestration, and a preview of Negativland’s upcoming DVD. Free toast and grape jam (and grape wine)!

2 points for the CDC

The California Department of Corrections was busy this weekend sticking it to Chevron and the DOD, and because they're using your grandma's web servers at geoshities, you won't be able to see the original post for a while, as it got boingboing-ed. Come on CDC, free web hosting is not free! It costs us all valuable time, and makes us mad. Do we need to start a fundraiser to raise $30 for you to spend on a real host?
Supporting Geocities is not what I would call culture jamming.



via:
The Billboard Liberation Front

Sign of the week:12

My first conclusion, was that someone thought this
Cortland Ave. billboard was asking them to "Beat" Donlad Tump Live! instead of "Meet." Upon further investigation, I noticed evidence of some sort of addition to the sign. I think that it may have said "graffiti" with an arrow pointing at the blood on Trump's head. This comes to me with great relief, as I was beginning to think that "learning" to become wealthy may cause brain aneurysms.

disclaimer:
sign of the week does not happen every week.

Been Gay?

Exodus International has started issuing "cease and desist" letters to people who make fun of their billboard campaign that spreads their "cure for gay" message.
Justinsomia got this one from these guys for this sign.

great quote from Zortnac
who also has some great parodies of the sign in question.

Empty Legal Threats Are Fun!
Everyone's favorite Ex-Gay ministry has put up some billboards in the mid-west advertising their product (a nicely packaged lie), with a new "Gay? Unhappy?" campaign. I mean, I have to admit, I am gay, and I am sometimes unhappy. I was unhappy just the other night when I was in the lab at 3 AM and the results from my project weren't coming out right. Just last week I was damn unhappy when I got another parking ticket! BLAST YOU STREET SWEEPING!!! So...does this mean that exodus has a solution to both my parking tickets and my statistical tests for a school project? If I go to the website and find that they don't....I'm going to be pretty unhappy.

Sign of the Week: 9

"Look your Best"
From the designers at New Zealnd's Clemenger BBDO.
This billboard illustrates the importance of wearing fashionable underwear.

see also: Playboy wet T-shirt Billboard

Take Down that Sign!

Last week I blogged about concerned LA citizens that had 50 cent's movie billboards removed.
Here's another one. A lady from the mid west is upset about her daughters seeing a billboard that advertises "Sex in the City" near their home. Not because it is a lousy TV show with poorly written scenarios, but because "It portrays a promiscuous lifestyle."
What I want to know is why are her elementary-school aged daughters driving?
...and NY Mayor Bloomberg is mad about a Dewar's whisky billboard ad that makes fun of how rich he is.

previous:
50 Cent

Graffiti "how-to"

Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions..or B.U.G.A. U.P.
has been correcting billborads since 1979, in Australia.
on their "how-to" page you can learn how to make a paint bomb, and a spray can extention rod.

For the most comprehensive guide to the alteration of outdoor advertising check out The Art & Science of Billboard Improvement on the BLF site.

For more on Australian "Billboard Busting" see the piece at Adbuster's site on the The Lonely Station