client: RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company
improvement: Marlbore
date: April 20, 1980
Take 5 with Jeff Jarvis
San Francisco Examiner
May 23, 1980
Lady Bird Would Be Proud: The Billboard Liberation Front struck again
They hit another cigarette billboard at First and Bryant streets. The BLF made the word “Marlboro” read “Marlbore” and added another word in a cartoon balloon coming out of the Marlboro Man’s mouth, “Yawn.”
It’s nice to see a movement maturing. After they made their hit, The BLF issued its very first communiqué. On top, it says: “A communiqué from the Billboard Liberation Front, improving urban advertising since 1977.” It explains: “As always, the alterations were done using paper and rubber cement which can be peeled off the billboard without damaging the original advertisement.”
They’ve already been peeled off. So then I got a call from Simon Wagstaff, which is the nom de paste for the press agent for the band. “We felt that the whole Marlboro campaign using that macho cowboy is hackneyed and painfully dull,” said. “It’s about time they got rid of it. We thought we’d help them along”.
The communiqué said the BLF has nothing against cigarettes. It’s dull billboards the BLF hates.
“The Marlboro cowboys should be given a lump sum residual and put out to pasture, “Wagstaff said. “They’ve worked hard. posing under those hot audio lights, practicing those tough macho stares in the mirror every day. They deserve a rest. The company should think up a new campaign maybe switch to an agency with a bit more flair. That frontier imagery was OK maybe 20 years ago, but this is 1980.”
Besides, said Simon, “the few real cowboys left probably chew tobacco or don’t smoke at all.”
Wagstaff wouldn’t say where he and the billboard bandits would strike again. That, he said, Would ruin the fun. But he was upset over what Channel 7 said the other night. They asked why the BLF hadn’t “been brought to justice.”
“Are they going to organize a posse or something, come riding out after us?” Wagstaff said. “Are we the worst criminals in the Bay Area?”
– Jeff Jarvis