Culture Jammers Take on the Economy

In the same vein as Adbusters or The Anti-advertising Agency, Billboard Liberation Front is a satirical creative agency in San Francisco offering “a broad range of black-bag operations and cultural jam services, from project management and subversion consulting to media manipulation and thought placement. ”

The faux agency recently ‘enhanced’ a Wachovia billboard on Mission St. and Cesear Chavez in San Francisco with a subtle, but timely new message.  According to their press release:

Dear Shareholders and Clients,

The Billboard Liberation Front has partnered with Wachovia to release a daring advertising campaign that celebrates Wachovia’s new money management strategy. This campaign emphasizes the silver lining in the economic storm front now threatening to swamp our economy as well as our individual fiscal inner tubes.

“The calamitous decline in the value of all investments and the impending total collapse of the dollar will render the true value of the average savings account or investment portfolio roughly equal to a bucket of warm piss,” noted Thomas J. Wurtz, CFO of Wachovia. Dr. John Silvia, Managing Director and Chief Economist noted: “After that golden shower we got from Golden West, we decided to fight fire with fire and start bailing for our clients and stockholders, mixed metaphors notwithstanding.”

The original message on the billboard read, “Watch your little ones grow. “