Few of us ever think of billboards as items that might raise an eyebrow or two, and since the 1960s with Lady Bird Johnson’s campaign to clean up America’s highways and eliminate many of them, most billboards have been on their best behavior. However, here are a few shining examples of the naughty and pushing-the-envelope capabilities of the indomitable human mind.
If that old bearded bard of Elizabethan England was right, then “love (really) hath no fury like a woman scorned.” If you don’t believe this, just consider the length and enormous expense ($250,000 smackeroos to be exact) YaVaughnie Wilkins went to when she paid for billboards like the one above in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco to publicly post her eight-and-a-half-year affair with married Oracle CEO and Obama advisor Charles Phillips. When he left her to reconcile with his wife, she was determined to get even which she most certainly did. She even started her own website which before it was taken down, featured photos and ephemera for all the world to see.
But, alas, that is not the weirdest of billboards. Perhaps an award for the worst of taste should go to PETA for these next two billboards, which prove that executive copywriters really do drink on the job. While these might appeal to a wry and edgy sense of humor, there is no question that they are offensive and way off limits.
Take a look at the billboard illustrated above. While it must be said this billboard for “save the whales” depicting an overweight woman in a bathing suit was not up for long as it understandably attracted much negative attention, it was still up for a while and was replaced with: “GONE: Just like all the pounds lost by people who go vegetarian.”
Still, PETA didn’t learn and as much good as they do for animals, someone in a power position has no judgment as to what is in good taste. Consider the billboard below illustrating Tiger Wood’s sex scandal as a symbol of the importance of spaying and neutering animals!
Bergemann & Son Funeral Services in Germany has gone way over the edge of tasteful to advertise its services. Consider the billboard below that can be seen in the Berlin subway. Coming to the rescue after a loved one dies is one thing, but hurrying the process is quite another!
The world is one weird place as evidenced by these far out billboards.
Gotta laugh though. Gotta laugh.
marjorie
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