Billboard Liberation Front: To Serve Man
The Billboard Liberation Front and Ron English have joined forces once again (the last time was in 2002). This afternoon they modified a billboard across from Golden Gate Park at the Cala Foods on Stanyon Street near Haight Street in San Francisco.
After receiving an anonymous tip, I went down to where the billboard liberation was taking place and shot a bunch of photos.
According to the press release, their billboard improvement was called “To Serve Man” and was in celebration of McDonald’s 50th Anniversary. This billboard modification was above an beyond what is typical for the BLF and included an animatronic Ronald McDonald force feeding a hamburger to an obese child, with a backdrop covering the billboard which consisted of well-fed Ronald McDonald and alien figures.
This was a very bold billboard improvement, since it took place in broad daylight in The Haight near Golden Gate Park, with people and cops all over the place. Not to mention the fact that they covered the entire billboard and installed two sculptures, including one that was kinetic and required a power source.
Once the billboard improvement was completed, dozens of Ronald McDonalds and a couple Hamburglers converged on the scene to help celebrate this occasion. They then proceeded to invade the McDonald’s across the street.
Soon after, the SFPD with the help of the SFFD removed the animatronic Ronald McDonald and child sculpture. It’s reported that Ronald was not read his Miranda rights as he was escorted into the (hamburger) patty wagon. The latest reports we have received are saying that the actual billboard modification was still in place, so their still may be time for you to go down and see it in person.
Here’s the press release that was sent to us by the Billboard Liberation Front:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1:30pm May 30th, 2005
Location: Billboard in the Cala Foods parking lot, corner of Haight St & Stanyan St, San Francisco
McDonalds is virtually ignoring its own golden anniversary with the modesty and humility of a king, even though McDonald’s 50th is an event of colossal significance for shareholders, staff, customers, and indeed, all of mankind. Thus, the Billboard Liberation Front (BLF) and Ron of the East will provide our most inspirational client with a gratis improvement in honor of McDonalds campaign “To Serve Man.”
The improvement illuminates and memorializes McDonalds’ far-reaching vision of Service to Man with two unique components. The background is an original 12’ x 22’ painting by noted New York artist Ron of the East, whose work was featured in the film Supersize Me. The foreground will feature the world’s first animatronic billboard alteration: a life-sized figure of Ronald McDonald feeding a corpulent child his daily dose of Big Macs. This represents yet another stunning innovation in realm of billboard alteration arts by San Francisco’s own Billboard Liberation Front.
Yet, this innovation pales in light to the dedication of McDonalds To Serve Man. With each successive year McDonalds has unflinchingly and subserviently fed more and more of humanity for the lowest of possible prices. All the while, they have selflessly prepared Earth and all its inhabitants for our ultimate purpose in the Universal Scheme of Things, as writer Rod Serling presaged in the 1960’s. That Grand Design is now ready for Mass Consumption.
Mankind is ready to serve, and McDonalds’ is the corporation to do the serving. After 50 years of eating more and more Big Macs, French fries, and McNuggets designed to enhance our serve-ability, we are finally ready! Untold billions of meals consumed by billions of people throughout the world, have sufficiently enlarged the average girth and tenderness of McDonalds’ patrons (i.e. you) to reveal the True Meaning of life on Earth! Keep your eyes to the skies and watch for the big, shiny saucers with the gold-arched logos that are going to whisk us away to our inevitable and glorious destiny among the stars. Soon McDonalds will truly fulfill its mission To Serve Man.
UPDATE 1: Jackson & Sarah filed their report at SFist, complete with mp3’s and video!
UPDATE 2: Eric in SF has some photos of other BLF/Ron English billboard alterations that occured the week leading up to the big one on Memorial Day: “Fat, F*ck’d-Up & 50!”, “McSoylent Gold Is Cattle!” & “The Mother of All Milkshakes!”
UPDATE (8-11-2005): Elliot has reported on his blog that one of the Ron English/BLF billboard modifcations is still up.
on Monday, May 30th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
I saw another billboard along the same theme on Division St. (under 101) near Folsom. I forgot what exactly it said, but my friend and I were definitely laughing. :-)
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 5:40 am
[…] lboard Liberation Front: To Serve Man
Filed under: Life — Calous @ 8:40 am
Laughing Squid » Billboard Liberation Front: To Serve Man Oh wow t […]
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 6:01 am
FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 6:40 am
[…] uesday 31 May 2005
Un ejemplo de intervención en el espacio público: carteles de publicidad en contra de McDonald’s. Incluye fotos […]
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 7:06 am
Great way to celebrate Mcdonald’s 50th anniversary! This should be happening all over the country (actually the world - I’m sure people in France would gladly take part)!
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 8:05 am
[…] Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn NYC Artist(s): Faile Photo(s): Charles News: The Billboard Liberation Front celebrates the 50th anive […]
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 8:07 am
Billboard Liberation Front Strikes in San Francisco
Want to know how to get SFist’s attention? Try sending us a press release that reads like this: THIS EMAIL IS FOR YOUR EYES ONLY—PLEASE EAT EMAIL AFTER READING. You’ve been sent this email because you are a Person of Special Interest. The Billboad…
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 9:28 am
We stumbled on this yesterday on an ill-advised mem day weekend trip down to our nasty neighboorhood Cala Food (which is where the board was) laughed our asses off. Gotta love this city.
It’s almost as good as the now defunct “Welcome to the Mission home of authentic tacos and urban blight.”
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 9:48 am
Brilliant! A tip o’ the cap to BLF for putting Mickey D in a Twilight Zone! [I guess everybody’s seen The Twilight Zone episode called “To Serve Man”]
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 10:59 am
looks like the cops played their part perfectly. I particularly like the one where the kneeling fatty is behind the police truck and the fire department guy is at the top of the ladder on the billboard. great shots, scott.
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 4:15 pm
Nice photos.
Does Eric have anytrhing to do with this?
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 8:20 pm
To Serve Man… mmmmmm, Soylent Green is people!
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 9:19 pm
[…] where you turn the media’s maniupulative strategies against it. This week, the BLF really outdid itself. They took an unused billboard, […]
on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 10:37 pm
that is amazing.
on Wednesday, June 1st, 2005 at 2:43 pm
the fatter we get the more we want to eat. it’s the ultimate biz model.
on Wednesday, June 1st, 2005 at 3:04 pm
[…] t and dress up like the Hamburglar.” Great photos, videos, and reports of the event here, […]
on Wednesday, June 1st, 2005 at 3:27 pm
thought you allmight enjoy these:
VOMIT
on Wednesday, June 1st, 2005 at 6:09 pm
[…] 8217;t see this kinda shit in Tulsa, and that’s a shame cause Tulsa really needs it. Laughing Squid and SFist has a complete rundown of the craziness. […]
on Thursday, June 2nd, 2005 at 8:53 am
You do realize that ‘To Serve Man’ is the title of a classic sci-fi story … after the aliens come to earth and save humanity from itself while ending hunger worldwide, a scientist manages to get aboard their spacecraft where he finds a book entitled ‘To Serve Man’ - turns out, it’s an ALIEN COOKBOOK w/ various recipes about how best to COOK AND EAT HUMANS!
“Soylent Green is PEOPLE”!
Loved the idea of modifying billboards, keep it up!
Gary
on Friday, June 3rd, 2005 at 2:43 pm
The ‘Serve Mam’ theme is also covered in The Simpson’s Halloween Special: Tree House of Horror, in which the family, abducted on an alien spaceship, find e cookbook entitled ‘How to cook (for) forty Humans’ parodying the ‘Twilight Zone’ episode called ‘To Serve Man.’
… obviously fiction, as it is clearly unlikely that an advanced race would choose to exploit and dominate less powerful species, rather than use their inteligence to makr a better world for all to share … It would never happen on Star Trek!!!
on Friday, June 3rd, 2005 at 7:55 pm
As a plus-size person, it’s sad that people naturally equate fatness with poor diet, which isn’t always the case….or rather, just because someone is thin, that doesn’t mean that they eat a healthy diet.
I haven’t been to a McDonald’s in years. But I’m a big person. I don’t eat at fast food restaurants, my idea of “fast food” is to stop at a grocery store and get a turkey and mustard sandwich from the deli counter, which as compared to anything from Micky D’s is pretty healthy.
But apparently the BLF wants to demean me and anyone else who looks fat to the general public with fat aliens and fat people being force-fed. I don’t object to the message that McDonalds is feeding people unhealthy food, but I DO object to the manner in which this message is being represented.
Fat people deal with more crap from society than I’m sure naturally thin people will ever realize. We are discriminated against for jobs, in classrooms, in restaurants, on airplanes, at health spas (one-size only fits most when it comes to those robes, which is embarrassing and degrading!), and a multitude of other places. Apparently the world believes we are fat because we want to be. But the reality is that many of us didn’t choose it: some of us are genetically predisposed to being large, some of us have glandular disorders, some of us are disabled and can’t exercise the way other people can (and don’t even try to tell me I should pay for a personal trainer or buy fancy workout gadgets, because that’s not something I can afford), and a lot of us can’t afford fancy diets. And some of us are happy with ourselves, work out regularly (4-6 times a week), eat healthier than the average American, and are still big people.
So before you go out and spread the word that McDonald’s is bad in a way that not-so-subtly also screams out that fatness is bad, think long and hard about what it would be like for you to have to suffer the consequences of fat-phobia at your job every day, or by not being able to get health insurance only because of your weight, regardless of how much healthier in general you are than other thin people you know….or how about this: maybe you should think long and hard about how fat-phobia might lead to your pudgy kid getting beaten up every day at school because kids blame him for his subcutaneous layers of baby fat. And think about your teenage daughter developing an eating disorder that might lead to her untimely demise because she was more afraid of being fat than death!
I’m not saying you shouldn’t protest McDonald’s and their unhealthy food….I’m just saying that there are other ways of doing it that don’t further stigmatize an ironically unseen and under-represented group of people who are discriminated against on a daily basis.
on Friday, June 3rd, 2005 at 10:56 pm
[…] ilm.com]. For more wacky videos try Pan’s Downloads. The Billboard Liberation Front vs. McDonalds. Comic book Reality [somethingawful.com]. Special t […]
on Saturday, June 4th, 2005 at 8:01 am
what about the misery mcdonalds visits on other species?
on Saturday, June 4th, 2005 at 10:36 am
Great stuff, these billboards.
Here is the first of four billboards, from my flickr.com photostream for those of you who want to see all four.
on Saturday, June 4th, 2005 at 3:05 pm
Too much fun!
on Monday, June 6th, 2005 at 1:12 am
Am I fat? Yes.
Is it my own dam fault? Yes.
Do fatties who whine about “Oh, its an illness! I hold no personal responsability! Give me justice society, and pass the bacon!” deserve to be eaten, by me. Probably not, but Im hungry :D
on Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 at 2:03 am
i love you.
i link your images.
if i can.
thank
on Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 at 8:37 am
Although McDonalds has the right to sell their disgusting low grade food items to an ignorant public, I also feel that it is the right of “educators” to dissuade those aforementioned of the dangers inherent in eating this so called food. It is not a criminal offense to market these awful products, but buyer beware, an artist might just make you think twice before your next Big Mac.
on Wednesday, June 15th, 2005 at 11:55 am
any company that is marketing “food” “for the masses” is screwing somebody somewhere, and probably not just the sometimes-unsuspecting customers…
but never fear, there are always clever stealth artists with a great sense of humor to remind us in a funny way so you don’t have to listen to me spew intense conspiracy theory…
http://www.43things.com/entries/view/91753
on Thursday, June 30th, 2005 at 6:20 am
What a bunch of liberal frogs you are. Have you no concept that corporations are what drive the American economy. They are the sole reason you are driving your SUV or techno-Honda instead of a buck-board. They provide you your lush lava lamps and bean bag chairs, as well as the beer and pizza you’re so fond of. (Vegetarian pizza for you tree hugging flower sniffers).
Here’s a clue, if you don’t like McDonalds, DON’T EAT THERE! It’s would be liberal activists like you, whose marijuana toking, draft dodging parents decided that Berkley would be the perfect spawning ground to squirt you out. Quit your whining and get a job. Unions need more narrow minded useless bleaters like you.
on Thursday, September 22nd, 2005 at 1:54 pm
[…] Pedro Carvajal has finished the final edit of his documentary “Popaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English”, based on the work of pop artist, billboard liberator Ron English. Pedro has added some new scenes based on the “To Serve Man” billboard improvement that Ron English and the Billboard Liberation Front collaborated on in San Francisco back in May, which commemorated McDonald’s 50th Anniversary. Earlier today, the BLF’s own Jack Napier described, in detail, the logistics of this hit on the BLF’s recently launched blog. […]
on Monday, October 10th, 2005 at 10:17 pm
…further stigmatize an ironically unseen and under-represented group of people who are discriminated against on a daily basis.
Under-represented?? This is a few months too late, but in case you haven’t noticed, obesity is America’s #1 health crisis. For every fit ‘n’ working large person who isn’t clogging his arteries, are a hundred who do not eat healthy and do not exercise. The inevitable results are early strokes, heart attacks, and countless other health problems that are taxing our healthcare system that’s already on the verge of collapse.