Hau`oli la Hanau, Aloha!

April 29, 2016 9:47 AM

In the spring of 2015, a billboard for the film Aloha was erected overlooking Logan Square in Chicago. It's still there today. While its fate and that of two others (mercifully blank) is fought over in court, fans of the billboard are planning a tiki party in honor of its first birthday.
posted by me3dia (17 comments total)

Here's the party invitation on Facebook, should you be interested in attending.
posted by me3dia at 9:49 AM on April 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

You'd think that Cameron Crowe would have paid to have that taken down by now so that no one would be reminded of that movie's existence.
posted by octothorpe at 10:16 AM on April 29, 2016 [4 favorites]

Oh, city people! I bet I could find a billboard for a business that shut down at least a decade ago within an hour drive of my house.
posted by ssg at 10:18 AM on April 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

While its fate and that of two others (mercifully blank) is fought over in court

Right, blank. That's what they want you to think.

But look at them through the right kind of sunglasses and you'll see that they, too, are ads—for the movies Elizabethtown and We Bought a Zoo.
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:18 AM on April 29, 2016 [16 favorites]

You'd think that Cameron Crowe would have paid to have that taken down by now so that no one would be reminded of that movie's existence.

Emma Stone would probably be willing to go halfsies.

Although I think you're ascribing too much self-awareness to Cameron Crowe
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:27 AM on April 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

The original plan was for that billboard to be in Chinatown, but then marketing told Cameron Crowe they were going with Logan Square and he just figured same diff.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:33 AM on April 29, 2016 [6 favorites]

There are fewer of them each year, but you can still see painted Victorian and Edwardian adverts on building walls in the UK - those lead-based paints just don't fade away...
posted by Devonian at 10:35 AM on April 29, 2016 [5 favorites]

Oh, city people! I bet I could find a billboard for a business that shut down at least a decade ago within an hour drive of my house.

Not a billboard, but in downtown St. Paul the long term lease for 23-years-vacant Woolworth's is finally coming to an end. So maybe we can stop having the husk of a Woolworth's in the middle of downtown. (There are already plans to re-purpose the husk of the Macy's.)
posted by paper chromatographologist at 10:36 AM on April 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, city people! I bet I could find a billboard for a business that shut down at least a decade ago within an hour drive of my house.

After a certain amount of time, they're called ghost signs, and they're really cool.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:36 AM on April 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

We've got plenty of ghost signs in Chicago. I just noticed a recently exposed one that appears to advertise the National Biscuit Company in at least one of its layers.
posted by me3dia at 10:43 AM on April 29, 2016

Emma Stone would probably be willing to go halfsies.

ISWYDT
posted by Etrigan at 11:07 AM on April 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

There's a billboard for iPhones starting beautiful models with iPhones on a homeless shelter down the street from my office. I'd like to have a party for that, which would also involve a roving band merry-makers with decorative torches.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:15 AM on April 29, 2016

It's no "MARTIAL ART - NOT A SPORT" but it has a certain charm.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:21 AM on April 29, 2016

Oh, city people! I bet I could find a billboard for a business that shut down at least a decade ago within an hour drive of my house.

But how many of them are this embarrassing?
posted by beerperson at 11:52 AM on April 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

One thing that I love about living in Maine is that we have pretty restrictive billboard laws. I always take it for granted until I get to another state and there's just all these ugly ads everywhere and driving down the highway is just annoying sign after annoying sign.

Growing up in Chicago where there are billboards everywhere, I never realized how much of a burden on my mental health it really was. Having ads everywhere really is fatigue inducing.
posted by mayonnaises at 12:38 PM on April 29, 2016 [5 favorites]

This is nothing compared to the billboard for Garfield: The Movie that lingered for at least two or three years not two city blocks north of here (Diversey/Milwaukee/Kimball). Not to diminish the greatness of this one, which also appears to be surviving legal challenges never launched against Garfield.
posted by JimInLoganSquare at 2:24 PM on April 29, 2016

UPDATE: The billboard has been removed. There's now a Change.org petition to bring it back.
posted by me3dia at 9:58 AM on May 10, 2016