client: RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company
improvement: I’m Real Sick
date: December 25, 1977
San Francisco Examiner (page 3)
Monday, December 26, 1977
The Billboard Vigilantes First Foray
Now it’s billboards that are being liberated.
Six billboards scattered throughout San Francisco were “liberated” yesterday by a group calling itself the “Billboard Liberation Front.”
Billboards can be liberated, apparently by changing their messages. Those liberated yesterday contain advertisements for Fact cigarettes. The liberators changed “I’m realistic, I smoke Fact…” to “I’m real sick, I smoke…”
A spokesman for the Billboard Liberation Front said the alterations were made by gluing new letters over the old with rubber cement because “we’re not into vandalism.”
The spokesman, who was interviewed by telephone and who refused to give his name, said the Billboard Liberation Front opposes false advertising.
He said yesterday’s outing was the group’s first endeavor and there are “350 members” of the BLF.
– Examiner staff