client: RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company
improvement: Joe Camel
date: January 26, 1996
creative director/marketing coodinator: Jack Napier, Blank DeCoverly | production: Winslow Leach, John Thomas, L.L. Fontelroy, Murray Burn | media team: Nichole Rosenthal, Brad Wieners
PRESS RELEASE
On January 6, 1996, the Billboard Liberation Front improved three outdoor advertising structures in the San Francisco bay area.
In coordinated actions in San Francisco, Oakland and Milpitas, BLF operatives surgically enhanced billboards leased to the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to promote its Camel brand of cigarettes.
This improvement campaign was undertaken as a gesture of public support for the executives of RJR and their heroic refusal to terminate the culturally significant Joe Camel campaign. It marks the first known use of neon in a billboard improvement action.
photos by Nicole Rosenthal