There’s been a lively but considerate debate taking place in the Bernalwood comment thread about the efficacy and ethics of the original Cortland pro-life billboard hack.
In the meantime, however, CBS Outdoor replaced the hacked billboard image with a brand-new version of the original ad…. which was promptly defaced yet again.
The difference is — as you can see in this photo taken today — the new modifications are unclever and rather tasteless. Yuck.
Please, make it stop.
PHOTO: Neighbor Joe
Bernalwood 
Hopefully whoever hacked the original one has saved the artwork to fix this copy as well.
What a horrible and hateful thing to do; Its so sad that their are people so unhappy and not filled with ‘love’ in our world.. // There are more good, happy and caring people on our Earth,
denise!
Horribly offensive. In the worse taste possible, inexcusable. Indefensible. How could that tasteless billboard be rehung.
Go Bernalwood! It’s a billboard soap opera! Following it religiously. Or maybe thats a poor choice of words given the subject matter.
This billboard must be removed ’cause the defacers will never stop. It’s like the road sign to Bolinas that was forever being removed by the locals. Now CalTrans doesn’t even bother replacing it.
Far as I am concerned, if they are going to put something up that is so clearly intended to be divisive, they deserve what they get. Take your misery and keep it inside your church and stop shoving your crusade down our throats. There are plenty of babies in Bernal for Chrissake. I trip over double-wide, double-decker strollers all the time.
I’m sure CBS advertising is happy to replace it a few times, but after a while even they’re going to say…warranty over. Shove it.
If you want to really bug the crap out of the hateful hatemongers, call that damn toll free number over and over and over. It costs them money.
I agree wholeheartedly about the extremely bad taste of the current alteration, but ya gotta wonder: what were they thinking hanging the billboard in our nabe to begin with? Confrontation waiting to happen.
I don’t understand what point the defacers thought they were making. “Kill the shrimp Pro-Choice”? I can’t imagine a less effective argument for the pro-choice side. A woman was pulling out of the Good Life grocery lot when I took this, and she commented that it was “really disturbing.”
The “Mother’s Choice” modification was at least somewhat clever, though the fact that they scraped the drawing of a fetus off was a bit on-the-nose. (If I were on the strict anti-abortion side and a vandal — and to be clear I’m neither — I’d have considered amending the original “Mother’s Choice” defacement with “These two don’t get a say.”)
I don’t think its really supposed to be a pro-choice message. It’s just anti-billboard.
If that was the intent, it wasn’t successful, was it? It actually says Pro Choice in the lower right corner. The shrimp thing is clearly mocking their fetus logo. But “kill the shrimp” seems like a right-winger’s imagining of what “pro-abortion” people would say.
Just an ugly failure all around.
I think a dozen thrown eggs would do the trick. And it does cost THEM money to replace the defaced billboards.
I hope it continues until the religious propaganda goes away. The responses so far are pretty funny if you consider how absurd “kill the shrimp” is in comparison to being forced by the law to carry a baby from incest to term. Both are equally absurd! I don’t think the shrimp graffiti people meant it to be read so literally.
(what TAFFY DONUT said!)
+ you outta towners who live in this city need to relax. pump your brakes and leave your
“right-wing baggage” from wherever you came from. whats funny is…SF is a really religious (go to the top of Folsom on a Sunday @ 12 or 6 and hear all the church bells ringing…beautiful sounds!) but they’re not force feeding their values on folks. You post an advert about anything (esp a hot political/religous topic) and you expect it to stay clean?! “This isn’t Kansas Aunt Em”. This is California and chances are, it will be hit up. This is what happens here. we exercise our first amendment more than other states do. We provoke thought, free thinking, expression and opinion. Get over it!
im hungry now, i want a Shrimp po’boy.
Showing our tolerance for the rights of free speech and private property. As long as we agree with it.
What are you talking about? We’re absolutely showing tolerance for the right of free speech as manifested in people altering a billboard/advertisement. For the most part, the criticism is of the WAY that whoever did this chose to alter the billboard, not the fact that they did at all.
So would you be ok with me altering a Planned Parenthood billboard in the same spot if it bothered me?
Absolutely!
Some things are offensive and magnified especially in certain neighborhoods. Would all of you men be OK with a billboard recommending castration for all men. Or how about a sign advertizing sex tourism with children in Asia. For some of us this pro life group is equally offensive.
and besides it targets the wrong demographics…Fathers, gay or not, take care of their kids on Bernal. They should have put a billboard celebrating our effort to integrate via adoption. Instead of this Matthew bulls$$. AS far as the offense. I don’t think that “kill the shrimp” is more offensive that what was on the billboard before. Enough with treating those hate mongers with fun and tasteful retort.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this reaction to the first defacing of the billboard was actually done by pro-life advocates angry about how their message was subverted. Just speculation…..
that would be sacrilegious, or may be they asked for a free pass, church goers are known to get multiple free pass from their priests when it comes to child sexual abuse.
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I agree with Stephen, something stinks in this (I’ve already seen a blog referring to the defacers as “racist” because the father and child are black). Didn’t this happen during the middle of the day? I was sure I saw it complete in the morning and defaced in the afternoon. Consider the possibility that this was an inside job to garner sympathy for the “pro-life” sponsors.
I thought about this possibility but decided it was too implausible. Now I’m reconsidering just because I like the slogan. “Kill the shrimp was an inside job!”
If anyone asks for evidence, we’re “just asking questions.”
I just found the blog Adrian referred to above, and ugh. Racist? Is “shrimp” a racist code word now? “Prawn” was a speciesist slur in District 9, and we’re in San Francisco’s District 9, but that’s still a stretch.
Also, mindful of Scalzi’s recent finding that the failure mode of “clever” is “asshole,” I want to be clear that I wasn’t implying Neighbor Adrian is a Truther, just trying to make a joke.
note updated billboard!
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