Truth in Advertising had community support
cancer-billboard-after
cancer-billboard-before
Put up January 6, 1983 on Ocean Street in Santa Cruz. Appeared in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on January 21. Covered over on January 24, after being up for 15 days.
Changing “Rums” to “Ruins” took just a small strip of black and a white dot. The “in” required hard to handle cut-out letters.
How Was It Done?
Truth in Advertising had community support

Altering billboards is illegal, but there was no outcry to arrest the perpetrators. The work was not seen as malicious defacement, but more as community entertainment. TIA “installers” reported at the time that passersby would stop and comment favorably, requiring the lookouts to urge them to move along lest they draw unwanted attention from the police.

“Some terrible (snicker) person or persons are defacing (giggle) the billboard on Cedar Street next to Cymbaline Records. Naturally, the Santa Cruz Express would never condone (hoo ha) such an act of destruction (hee hee). However, if those hooligans don’t get busy on their latest ode to our commercial tendencies, we’ll all have anxiety attacks.”
Bruce Bratton, Santa Cruz Express, March 25, 1981.
number 9
Santa Cruz Sentinel front page, January 21, 1983
Santa Cruz Sentinel fron tpage