Truth in Advertising was an artistic endeavor
cancer-billboard-after
cancer-billboard-before
Put up July 12, 1982, at the corner of Cedar and Center Streets in Santa Cruz. Covered over July 24, after being up for 12 days.
This overlay was done in multiple sections, and covered one-third of the entire billboard’s area. Installation took less than 10 minutes.
How Was It Done?
Truth in Advertising was an artistic endeavor

The work of TIA was not a midnight scrawl, an indecipherable graffiti to be ignored. The billboards were carefully planned and executed by collaborating “artists” and a supporting cast of lookouts. The artwork itself may have been just text, but the art was in the message, and the daring act itself. Most alterations had an open air run of several weeks, fairly typical of art displays. TIA artists gained fame, even as they had to remain anonymous.

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“Roger White, of Foster and Kleiser Advertising, is as much in the fog as the police about TIA. ‘I’ve seen some of their work,’ said White. ‘They do an excellent job.’”
Santa Cruz Student Guide, Winter 1985