The Billboard Liberation Front have announced “a new advertising improvement campaign” targeting McDonald’s billboards. They’re calling the re-branding effort “I’m Sick Of It.” The first hacked billboard appeared at the corner of California and Hyde in San Francisco.
Looks like they are doing work for Phillip Morris as well:
via Laughing Squid
We love this billboard take over by French artist OX. Hopefully the owners of the Dunkin Donuts / Baskin Robbins appreciate the coordination with their awning.
Some German pranksters recently modified a bunch of street level advertisements in Berlin and Hamburg by adding some nose picking.
Posterchild did quite a few digital billboard alterations during his stay in New York last year (including one very special one), but this might be our favorite. The face is of Star Fox character Andross. Even if, like me, you have no idea who it is, it’s pretty damn cool looking!
Prague’s street art collective EPOS 257 recently converted some blank billboards into abstract art with the help of a few paintball guns. They write:
Shooting into the white surface of vacant billboards with a paintball gun – blank canvasses in an urban environment, a gesture expressing an opinion and at the same time abstract painting in a urban environmemt.
artist – Ji Lee
This past Saturday over 120 illegal billboards were white-washed and covered with art in New York City by a team of volunteers and artists. The guerrilla operation was organized by The Public Ad Campaign over the past four months.
Barbara Celis writes:
As the main organizer explained to the artists who choose to get involved, the agency that owns the ‘attacked’ billboards operates on an illegal basis. “NPA outdoor operates over 500 street level billboards in NYC ranging in size from about 4′x4′ to 50′x12′. All of these advertising structures are illegal. I found this out by talking to the NYC Department of Buildings which has no permits for the NPA outdoor structures but has its hands full dealing with the rampant illegal billboard situation. I have also spoken directly with NPA outdoor employees who have told me that the NYPD will jail them from time to time at which point NPA lawyers bail them out and they are compensated 500 dollars for the nuisance of spending the night in jail”.
NPA Outdoor had teams putting their illegal advertising back up early Sunday morning. I personally spotted ads going up over artwork on 8th Avenue and 26th Street at 2 AM. Celis interviewed an artist at the afterparty who said, “Art is about the experience, about living the moment, and what we did was so fucking great for New York that even if they take down our pieces, we have learned that we can do it, and we will do it again. New yorkers had fun today in a very unusual way. It’s priceless!”
More photos:
cronicasbarbaras
wooster collective
gothamist
Back around the inauguration, some pranksters liberated a Los Angeles billboard, covering it with Ron English’s awesome Abraham Obama image.
Friends We Love posted an interview of New York’s most prolific subway street artist, PosterBoy:
Here’s a video of PosterBoy in action:
Poster Boy In Action from ANIMALmagazine on Vimeo.
And finally a video of PosterBoy taking down an entire billboard that he declares in the video description to be “a sign of what’s to come”:
(video shot by the Public Ad Campaign)
The Post More Bills project is attacking public spaces worldwide and offering an alternative to those that would request we “Post No Bills.” Check out the video of a recent installation in New York City:
Their website explains:
Post More Bills campaign calls for posting as much bills as possible. Bills – A response to “Post No Bills”–attack New York City. Bills likes to appear wherever they are not wanted. A humorous approach to posting your own thoughts on the street. There is no hidden program, there is no bigger meaning, other than to spreading Bills far and wide and bring a bit of playful relief in our visually saturated media environment. As you walk through the city you will find yourself bombarded with images that promise or imply or accuse. We want to find the space in-between this visual cacophony and place there a part of you. And we want you to help. We want the Bills to grow and flourish, so please feel free to help them grow, include them in your own designs.The only condition we ask is that you make no money from the image. The bills are free for you to download, reproduce and modify, so long as they are not used for commercial gain.
Update: Check out a similar project from 2005.
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