Billboard Liberation Front
Relevancy:
The Billboard Liberation Front alters billboard advertisements that hundreds of thousands of people see while driving and walking leaving a confusing impression amongst their audience. Their work is successful to me in how they reach their audience and how they are respectful to the property they alter. I believe they could improve on their message they are sending as it brings up problems of being seen as a funny prank rather than raising awareness at times. I believe my art dangerously goes down the comedic path too which makes me wonder if I should embrace comedy more to send out my awareness message or continue to try and be more on the serious side. The billboards definitely cause the viewer to take a second look which is something I find very appealing and hope that my work causes the same reaction and demands that the viewer figure out what is wrong with my work and that leads to a discussion of the material presented.
The Billboard Liberation Front alters billboard advertisements that hundreds of thousands of people see while driving and walking leaving a confusing impression amongst their audience. Their work is successful to me in how they reach their audience and how they are respectful to the property they alter. I believe they could improve on their message they are sending as it brings up problems of being seen as a funny prank rather than raising awareness at times. I believe my art dangerously goes down the comedic path too which makes me wonder if I should embrace comedy more to send out my awareness message or continue to try and be more on the serious side. The billboards definitely cause the viewer to take a second look which is something I find very appealing and hope that my work causes the same reaction and demands that the viewer figure out what is wrong with my work and that leads to a discussion of the material presented.
About:
The Billboard Liberation Front began in 1977 with a man named Jack Napier as a member group of people in San Francisco called “The Suicide Club.” The group was about exploring the unknown and thrill seeking. In 1977 the group altered their first billboard. After that first billboard the group split into what is now known as the Billboard Liberation Front led by Jack. The group looks at advertisements and tries to figure out what it is really saying and then fix the ad to do just that.
“...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.” – From the Billboard Liberation Front Manifesto
Interviews / Quotes:
“If a brand or company is mocked by a billboard alteration rather than the amendment making a serious point, won't the viewer dismiss it as a childish prank?”
“God bless the child. Each "viewer" who sees enough billboard "improvements" might eventually get the idea that each and every brand and/or ad slogan is his/hers to modify (if only in their imagination). Once you change the message, it becomes yours. As to the idea of making "serious points" in ad improvement, or for that matter in any type of public discourse, didn't that become difficult if not impossible after Reagans presidency? Not to mention after we decided to allow a bunch of unintelligible and silly French "philosophers" dictate the nature of reality to us?” – Jack Napier
“Have you seen how the public react to billboard alteration? Do you think people understand the points you make and then read between the lines of advertising? It is possible that many people just laugh and forget the message.”
“I'm just happy when they don't accidentally hit me with their car! If anything lightens someone's day through humor or a momentary identification with something outside of themselves that gives them ideas, how can it be bad? However, if you're trying to make the world a better place, give hungry people food (if they agree to quit breeding like roaches.)” – Jack Napier
Billboard Liberation Front Creative Group. Jan 2011 <http://www.billboardliberation.com/response.html>
“I did quite a few small billboards attacking McDonalds, but Jack and I were trying to come up with a hit that had a conceptual underpinning. Jack wanted to use something involving a robotic element, he had worked with neon in the past and wanted to do something bigger. So anyway, there’s an old Twighlight Zone episode, “To Serve Man” (episode 89) where aliens come down to Earth to collect people for lunch. So the ideas was, what if this did actually happen, fifty years earlier, and McDonalds was just a tool of aliens to fatten us up, a fast food chain created to harvest humans.” – Ron English
Harman, Ken. “Behind Enemy Lines with the Billboard Liberation Front.” Hi Fructose Vol 18. 2011: 86.
Images:
Artist Interview: http://www.bombingscience.com/index.php/blog/viewThread/1433
Artist Website: http://www.billboardliberation.com/
Artist Representation: None
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