September 1977
19 year old Jack Napier and 43-year-old Irving Glikk attend an event sponsored by the mysterious San Francisco Suicide Club entitled: “Enter the Unknown”. The two friends along with 24 other nascent urban adventurers are blindfolded, driven to an inner city freeway exchange and cajoled into climbing onto a factory roof where they improve two existing billboard messages. This gaggle of earnest though inexperienced drive-by copywriters are apprehended by the authorities (natch) and become known as the Max Factor 26.
Glikk and Napier form the BLF and christen it by altering and improving 9 “Fact Cigarette” boards around San Francisco on Christmas Day. With the help of Simon Wagstaff (BLF’s 1st press agent) they publicize their premier Billboard action for maximum exposure and impact.
December 1977
October 1978
Camel Cigarettes image is improved by properly attiring their scantily clad spokesman, “The Turk“.
Various billboard improvement campaigns of varying quality and impact.
1979-1980
April 1980
The BLF points out the boring message behind the Marlboro Man.
The Billboard Movement (BM), comprised of Arnold Fleck, Walid Rasheed and Cruella DeVille splits with the BLF. (“it fucks you up” & “time for whip“)
May 1980
1980-1984
More actions around the Bay Area and California.
Founder Irving Glikk retires. Spokesman Simon Wagstaff retires.
January 1985
1985-1989
The BLF, overwhelmed by the heady joy of Reaganomics falls into a complacent consumer trance and forgets to improve any billboards.
Due to a slick threat to the paving industry, the BLF regroups to strike a blow for Exxon Corporation. Jack Napier takes over as spokesman. Winslow Leach and Ethyl Ketone join and Walid Rasheed rejoins BLF.
May 1989
July 1989
A “philosophical organ” The Institute for the Rational Analysis of National Trends (I.R.A.N.T.) is debuted in the BLF’s Portland, Oregon office. Under the direction of Igor Pflicht a unified, codified, quantified and ossified core BLF philosophy is becoming ever more clear.
The BLF ends the decade with a political message for America.
December 1989
January 1990
Kidnapped Bay Guardian political editor, Tim Redmond foments BLF propaganda.
Along with Artfux of NYC, BLF is voted into 10 best Media Heroes of 1991 by the Utne Reader Magazine.
May 1991
1993
Plymouth Neon, Captain Morgan & other Ad campaigns appropriate BLF tactics to sell their products. BLF counter appropriates.
April 1994
1995
BLF drops LSD.
1st ever Neon glass billboard improvement graces every child’s favorite Smokin Joe.
December 1995
September 1996
Charlie Manson becomes new Levis spokesman (with the help of the BLF)
Conrad Hoc signs on as BLF Web Designer.
1997
BLF launches it’s website, billboardliberation.com on Valentine’s Day.
February 1999
March-April 1999
BLF sponsors bi-coastal Billboard shows at S.F.’s LAB & N.Y.C.’s CB’s 313 Gallery.
BLF embarks on an internet assistance program beginning with an extensive “dot-com” campaign involving 10 billboards along the 101 freeway in the “Silicon Valley” corridor.
This campaign culminates in an homage to Fortune Magazine and internet “uber-mensch” Jeff Bezos.
November 2000 – March 2001
July 2002
BLF with Milton Rand Kalman, & Rico T. Spoons at the helm point out some “accounting errors” in their “Audited” improvements to a Business Objects board on SF’s main freeway.
Ron English pays a visit to the Bay Area and instead of cruising Fisherman’s Wharf and hitting the Red Room he and the BLF help to point out a discrepancy in the Bay Area snitch omissions standards.
November 2002
July 2003
BLF consults the classics to explore the feminine side of ancient Greek copy-writing in order to add a little class to a Banana Republic roadside campaign
BLF weighs in on the ongoing litigation controversy in American dialectics.
August 2003
August 2003
BLF lays low for awhile a after spate of publicity regarding the groups pata-legal activities.
BLF launch a redesigned website, with new webmaster Milton Rand Kalman
December 2003
September 2005
BLF adds WordPress to their site, joins the legions of DIY media creators
BLF re-launches a new improved site under the eyes of Miguel O’Hara
October 2024
“Culture jamming was a phrase that was coined by Mark Hossler of {musical group} Negativland back in the late 1980s. They do the audio equivalent of what we do, I think, and they were actually influenced by earlier billboard artist – taking existing, often media generated text and altering it to say something different. What’s happened with the phrase {culture jamming} is that people have taken it {and} imbued it with more meaning than there really is, to help to define a movement. While any ‘movement’ denotes people moving in the same direction, I think this whole thing is about encouraging people to move in their own direction.”
Jack Napier,
BLF
From conversation with critic Mimi Vitetta in Art Papers Magazine Volume 23.5 Sept/Oct 1999