Calling All Billboard Liberators!
posted by ModeratorFiled under: First Amendment Issues, Culture Jamming and Reality Hacking, Parody
Submitted by R. Ryan Anderson, a cyber activist living in the city of Tacoma, Washington, who writes that Tacoma’s billboards are being used as part of a massive spam attack. As of August 1, 2007, the deadline for all city billboards to comply with a law passed ten years ago requiring the removal of billboards deemed too large, too ugly or too disruptive, hundreds of billboards in Tacoma have sprouted a scary blue and red message reading: “CONSTITUTIONS MATTER.”
Each sign is labeled “Clear Channel Outdoor,” but then, Clear Channel Outdoor owns all the billboards. Just in advance of the August 1 deadline, Clear Channel Outdoor filed suit against the City of Tacoma claiming the ban violates free-speech rights and doesn’t give the company just compensation for the signs’ removal.
Here’s a July 31, 2007 article from the News Tribune and a local blog with photos. Here, too, is this blog submitter’s “they live” parody.
Bottom multi-sign image (color): Russ Carmack/The News Tribune
