This weekend, the kids at Public Ad Campaign hijacked 150 illegally placed billboards. The ads were summarily whitewashed and then painted over by 50 different artists. According to Animal NY (whose own Bucky Turco got in on the action, naturally):

On Saturday, Public Ad Campaign’s Jordan Seiler organized a massive ad space takeover in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The target: NPA’s illegal outdoor billboards. They’re the main company that wheatpastes up promotional posters for various brands or what’s known in the industry as wild postings. So starting around 11AM, a total of 26 whitewashers were broken into groups and provided with paint, orange worker vests, and maps. In total we covered 120 of the 132 locations planned in Chelsea, West Village, Chinatown, East Village, Lower East Side, and Williamsburg. A second wave of approximately 50 artists then moved into to take advantage and beautify the newly created public canvasses.

The results are pretty stunning, and pretty clear in their message: when you put up an ad in public space, you lose your ownership of it. Anyone doing out-of-home advertising should take note. You’re paying for the opening of a conversation, not a window display. So be careful what you say.