Striking Billboard Ads. [more inside]
posted by mippy on Aug 25, 2009 - 72 comments

On April 25th, 2009, over 50 artists and 26 whitewashers spread out over lower Manhattan as part Jordan Seiler's "New York Street Advertising Takeover". Over 120 illegal billboards were whitewashed, then turned into "personal pieces of art." One person was arrested. More pictures. via
posted by logicpunk on May 4, 2009 - 15 comments

Clever and Creative Billboard Advertising. [via]
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse on Jan 8, 2009 - 13 comments

"The Billboard Liberation Front today announced a major new advertising improvement campaign executed on behalf of clients AT&T and the National Security Agency. Focusing on billboards in the San Francisco area, this improvement action is designed to promote and celebrate the innovative collaboration of these two global communications giants." [Via Threat Level.]
posted by homunculus on Feb 28, 2008 - 67 comments

1. Photograph billboard.
2. Replace head with bloody stump.
3. Affix stump to original billboard.
4. Repeat as necessary.
posted by Partial Law on Jan 11, 2008 - 65 comments

IllegalSigns.ca tracks illegal billboards in Toronto. You can use their Google Maps mash-up to find illegal signs in your neighbourhood.
posted by chunking express on Sep 7, 2007 - 39 comments

"Señores imperialistas, no les tenemos ningún miedo!" : Political billboards from Cuba
posted by champthom on Nov 25, 2006 - 10 comments

Magink has built the worlds first billboard using a type of e-ink, similar to the display technology used in the coveted Sony Reader devices - except it is 10'x20' and in full color. Advertisers nirvana and a colorized glimpse of the future of electronic ink devices.
posted by stbalbach on Sep 8, 2006 - 28 comments

Artist Dan Bergeron likes to muck around with billboard adverts. His recent doctoring of a billboard featuring Bush in Toronto has earned him some press in the Globe and Mail.
posted by chunking express on Aug 11, 2006 - 43 comments

Transparent Billboards Kasia Kesicka, at the Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in Poznan, creates a commentary on public space in various cities in Poland for his MFA final project in Photography. The result, mirroring the transparent laptop trick, is stunning and poignant {flash}
posted by MiltonRandKalman on Oct 19, 2005 - 36 comments

Sign Sign everywhere a sign. Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind. Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign? (lyric) Good signs, questionable signs, bad signs.
posted by caddis on Oct 17, 2005 - 11 comments

Post No Bills. At the intersection of life and advertising one may unexpectedly find art, or at least humor. Henry Ho shines a light on it. (42 pages. Or view all thumbnails together)
posted by taz on Jul 29, 2005 - 15 comments

Billboards by Ron English.
posted by jikel_morten on Jun 12, 2005 - 17 comments

The Patrick Mimran Billboard Project, an eyesore to New York City inhabitants for the past few years, has imposed the French "artist's" lame, clichéd grievances about the art industry onto anyone driving or walking down W24th, 25th, or 26th Street in Chelsea. It's an infestation. Now, happily, some New Yorkers who have tired of M. Mimran's pretentious sloganeering have decided to fight back. Hurrah!
posted by jeremy b on Dec 17, 2004 - 43 comments

A giant game of telephone in the sky --For most of November in Yamaguchi, Japan, messages sent will be translated to japanese and back, and encoded as a unique set of flashes and redirected into the sky ove the city, flashing there until the recipient of the message retrieves it, transforming the skyline with data as light--created by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.

Meanwhile, at the same time on the other side of the world, there's Poetrica, on Sao Paulo, Brazil, advertising billboards.--messages that also can't be read in public in their current form. You write something and convert it into a non-phonetic font. The visual messages are archived on the web site and you get an email when your message is displayed on one of the billboards--created by Giselle Beiguelman
posted by amberglow on Nov 1, 2003 - 9 comments

Faster Pastor - Billboard Humour - a lovely and very funny pictorial archive of billboards from a British church, done by a Rev. Paul Sinclair, who has other eccentric services as well...
posted by RylandDotNet on Oct 6, 2003 - 10 comments

The Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California takes the impeachment question directly to the local street and neighborhood and asks the following question on it's marquee. What is an impeachable offense? Lying to wage war? Or lying about sex? Across the country billboards and marquees have been commonly used to express political sentiment (original link from Buzzflash)
posted by thedailygrowl on Jul 28, 2003 - 11 comments

By their billboards ye shall know them: the Tehran street advertising collection. See Western luxuries, goofy icons and hardline Islamist and reformist propaganda compete for Iranian minds. Watch out for those changing Iranian ad standards, though. [via hoder]
posted by mediareport on Dec 28, 2002 - 8 comments

A billboard just for you. A new technology is being implemented in billboards that will pick up what radio station drivers are listening to and calculate what product to advertise. Is this a good thing, like Tivo, or should we call Adbusters? Some people thought the day would never come. What's the next step for marketers? Space Advertising??
posted by Espoo2 on Dec 23, 2002 - 22 comments

The European Version Of The Burma Shave Billboards: An obsessive Belgian collector, apparently called Bartolomeo Mecánico, has assembled an amazing online gallery of old painted roadside advertisements.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Feb 3, 2002 - 7 comments

The state of Minnesota decides to fight distracted drivers by putting up billboards. Next up: A new state committee to check programs for irony before they're made public.
posted by mrbula on Aug 21, 2001 - 7 comments

Free speech rights of big tobacco Another case for the Supreme Court. This one involves billboard ads close to schools. Protect our kids or protect free speech?
posted by Postroad on Apr 24, 2001 - 29 comments

Since 1977, the Billboard Liberation Front has been creatively altering the billboards of San Francisco. Highlights of their site include photos of their accomplishments and archived news stories from pre-web times.
posted by Aaaugh! on Dec 10, 2000 - 0 comments

Signs, signs, everywhere signs Modern Humorist takes a deeper look into the semiotic nightmare that is Palm Beach County.
posted by Skot on Nov 10, 2000 - 2 comments

Amtrak is running one of the most bizarre promotions ever. Yesterday, I saw a bunch of billboards along the freeways saying "Do you have a face that can stop a train?" Below that was this URL: winafacelift.com. How a train company and facelifts go together, I don't know. It's almost as if they want their slogan to be "when you're too ugly for plane travel, take a train."
posted by mathowie on May 14, 2000 - 3 comments