The
Billboard Liberation Front, or
BLF, has been
practicing truth in
advertising since
1977.
Their mission is simple: To
alter outdoor advertising (billboards) in order to make it more truthfull, funny, or just to
ignite the
phenomenologist in all of us.
Some of their favorite targets have been:
The BLF manifesto as written by Jack Napier & John Thomas:
In the beginning was the Ad. The Ad was brought to the consumer by the Advertiser. Desire, self
worth, self image, ambition, hope; all find their genesis in the Ad. Through the Ad and the intent of
the Advertiser we form our ideas and learn the myths that make us into what we are as a people.
That this method of self definition displaced the earlier methods is beyond debate. It is now clear
that the Ad holds the most esteemed position in our cosmology.
- Advertising suffuses all corners of our waking lives; it so permeates our consciousness that
even our dreams are often indistinguishable from a rapid succession of TV commercials.
- Different forms of media serve the Ad as primary conduits to the people. Entirely new media
have been invented solely to streamline the process of bringing the Ad to the people.
- Old fashioned notions about art, science and spirituality being the peak achievements and
the noblest goals of the spirit of man have been dashed on the crystalline shores of
Acquisition; the holy pursuit of consumer goods. All old forms and philosophies have been
cleverly co-opted and re"spun" as marketing strategies and consumer campaigns by the
new shamans, the Ad men.
- Spiritualism, literature and the physical arts: painting, sculpture, music and dance are by
and large produced, packaged and consumed in the same fashion as a new car. Product
contents, dictated by trends in hipness, contain a half-life matching the producers calender
for being supplanted by newer models.
- Product placement in television and film have overtaken story line, character development
and other dated strategies in importance in the agendas of the filmmakers. The directors
commanding the biggest budgets have more often than not cut their teeth on TV Ads &
music videos.
- Artists are judged and rewarded on the basis of their relative standing in the ongoing
commodification of art objects. Bowing to fashion and the vagaries of gallery culture, these
creators attempt to manufacture collectible baubles and contemporary or "period" objects
that will successfully penetrate the collectors market. The most successful artists are those
who can most successfully sell their art. With increasing frequency they apprentice to the
Advertisers; no longer needing to falsely maintain the distinction between "Fine" &
"Commercial" art.
- And so we see, the Ad defines our world, creating both the focus on "image" and the culture
of consumption that ultimately attract and inspire all individuals desirous of communicating
to their fellow man in a profound fashion. It is clear that He who controls the Ad speaks with
the voice of our Age.
- You can switch off/smash/shoot/hack or in other ways avoid Television, Computers and
Radio. You are not compelled to buy magazines or subscribe to newspapers. You can sic
your rotweiler on door to door salesman. Of all the types of media used to disseminate the
Ad there is only one which is entirely inescapable to all but the bedridden shut-in or the
Thoreauian misanthrope. We speak, of course of the Billboard. Along with its lesser
cousins, advertising posters and "bullet" outdoor graphics, the Billboard is ubiquitous and
inescapable to anyone who moves through our world. Everyone knows the Billboard; the
Billboard is in everyones mind.
- For these reasons the Billboard Liberation Front states emphatically and for all time herein
that to Advertise is to Exist. To Exist is to Advertise. Our ultimate goal is nothing short of a
personal and singular Billboard for each citizen. Until that glorious day for global
communications when every man, woman and child can scream at or sing to the world in
100Pt. type from their very own rooftop; until that day we will continue to do all in our power to
encourage the masses to use any means possible to commandeer the existing media and
to alter it to their own design.
- Each time you change the Advertising message in your own mind, whether you climb up
onto the board and physically change the original copy and graphics or not, each time you
improve the message, you enter in to the High Priesthood of Advertisers.