Billboard Liberation Front

The Billboard Liberation Front practices culture jamming via altering billboards by changing key words to radically alter the message, often to an anti-corporate message.[1] It started in San Francisco in 1977.[2]

Example work, post-Hurricane Katrina.

Advertising executives informed Jill Posener, author of Spray it Loud (1982), that the executives designed billboards to attract attacks because the changes drew attention to the products. The BLF were aware of this possibility and considered invoicing advertisers including Chiat Day for the BLF's work.[3]

In 2013, Complex Magazine named the BLF #27 of The 50 Most Influential Street Artists of All Time.[4]

Cooperation

The BLF cooperated with a range of other art groups, like Guerrilla Girls,[5] monochrom[6] and Joey Skaggs.

See also

References
  1. "Using urban guerrilla tactics, Billboard Liberation Front 'adjusts' ads". SF Gate. August 24, 2003. Retrieved 2010-12-09. The Billboard Liberation Front -- a loosely knit Bay Area underground organization that for 23 years has "improved" billboards in San Francisco by changing advertising messages with a decidedly countercultural sensibility
  2. Alexander Barley (May 21, 2001). "Battle of the image". New Statesman. Retrieved 2010-12-09. Subvertising is not a new idea - the Billboard Liberation Front, which started in San Francisco in 1977, is one milestone.
  3. Orum, Anthony M.; Neal, Zachary P. (2009). Common Ground?: Readings and Reflections on Public Space. Routledge. p. 160. ISBN 9781135257552. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
  4. Rushmore, RJ; Caldwell, Caroline (2013-10-11). "The 50 Most Influential Street Artists of All Time". Complex. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
  5. Lo Down Magazine, "Billboard Liberation Front and Guerrilla Girls, Pump Up the Jam"
  6. monochrom and BLF: Great Firewall of China, on Boing Boing TV, 2008
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