I have a love/hate relationship with billboards. There’s something endearingly old-school and very American about them, yet they’re a plague on our landscape—often dumb, and almost always inescapable. But the inescapable part can work to one’s advantage.
For guerrilla agitprop group Yikes, Right, which is presently on the Trump offensive, “billboards are a way of reaching everyone,” says one anonymous member. “There’s no barrier to reaching folks no matter the demographic. People don’t have to subscribe, click to select, turn on or tune in, and for Christ’s sake we won’t send a survey or bother you for ‘likes’. The messages stand on their own, and all we mean to say is ‘REALLY??’ ‘IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT??’ ‘IS THIS PRESIDENT CREATING A BETTER LIFE FOR YOU?’ Or more pointedly, ‘IS IT MORAL, IS IT RIGHT?’ … The challenge is to bring people to that realization—to create messages that invite consideration of what’s going on in light of one’s own beliefs, and perhaps a reconsideration of one’s position. It’s also damn important for people to see messages like this so they know there’s a vast and growing community of angry, disappointed, fed up and fearful citizens out there—and that’s a community they may want to join.”
Seen while speeding down the road, the design of Yikes, Right’s billboards might cause the pleasant surprise of a double-take. (Or a double-double–take, considering the graphic and the double entendre.) “The format is a bit of a sneak attack using a non-threatening visual trope that invites people in while at the same time pokes fun at the trope itself. We kinda imagine people have had enough of that, too.”
For more Yikes, Right, go here, here, here, here and here.
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