Counterculture · 1979–1985 · Oceania
BUGA UP Billboard Alteration
Also known as B.U.G.A.U.P., Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions, Australian billboard liberation
An Australian anti-smoking and anti-alcohol campaign of unauthorised civil disobedience that altered existing billboards, blanking some letters and adding others so the slogan turned against its product, then signed BUGA UP. It is a style because the method fixes a signature: detourned commercial lettering at street scale under a shared name. Colour is borrowed from each host ad (the palette is illustrative). Peak: late 1970s to mid-1980s; the 1992 tobacco-advertising ban is context.
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01
How it works
- Alter the existing advertisement instead of making a new image, so the original layout carries the argument.
- Blank out chosen letters and paint in new ones until the slogan reverses its own meaning.
- Match the host ad's lettering closely enough that the edit reads as the advertiser confessing.
- Keep the change small and the wit dry; one or two altered words outweigh a paragraph of protest.
- Sign every alteration with the BUGA UP name so separate acts read as one movement.
Inner-city Sydney, October 1979: Bill Snow, Ric Bolzan and Geoff Coleman; spread to Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide and Perth. Arthur Chesterfield-Evans was a member before entering politics
02
Its design choices
From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.
- Layout & composition
- Space & hierarchy
- Form & shape
- Surface & texture
- Ornament
- Medium & production
- Tone & intent
- Avoids
- Abundant decoration, Floral & vegetal, Luxurious & glamorous, Calm & contemplative, Script, Modular grid, Generous white space
Palette
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#c8102e -
#ffffff -
#111111 -
#f2c200
Typefaces
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Hand-painted block capitals matched to the billboard's own lettering
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Commercial grotesque advertising type of the host ads
altered, not chosen
Known for
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Marlboro billboard, North Sydney, altered to read 'it's a bore'
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Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, BUGA UP member before entering NSW politics
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Cancer Council of Western Australia credited the campaign with making it 'suddenly more respectable' for medical bodies to push for advertising reform
03
Make something in this style
Say what you need, and Stylogeny’s image studio draws it from BUGA UP Billboard Alteration’s design choices and checks it against them. It takes about a minute, and you get a link to share.
04
Where it comes from, and what it’s close to
Before it
The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.
After it
The styles that grew out of it.
No later style in the atlas grew out of it yet.
Alike in its design choices
Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.
- Ultras Graphics (Curva Banners and Tifo) 60% alike
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- Atelier Populaire (May '68 Screenprint Poster) 49% alike
05
Often taken for
BUGA UP Billboard Alteration has no real works recorded yet, so these are its nearest styles by its choices alone, with the choices that tell them apart.
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Ultras Graphics (Curva Banners and Tifo)
Ultras Graphics is one of BUGA UP Billboard Alteration’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell BUGA UP Billboard Alteration and Ultras Graphics apart Choice BUGA UP Billboard Alteration Ultras Graphics Ornament-free characteristic — Emblems & badges — defining Visual tension characteristic — Repetition & rhythm — defining Ironic & self-aware defining occasional No shared descent in the atlas: they reached these choices separately.
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Israeli Political Poster (Tartakover to Lemel)
Israeli Political Poster is one of BUGA UP Billboard Alteration’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell BUGA UP Billboard Alteration and Israeli Political Poster apart Choice BUGA UP Billboard Alteration Israeli Political Poster Hand-lettering defining — Generous white space avoids characteristic Painterly brushwork characteristic — Monochrome — characteristic Architecture & signage defining — No shared descent in the atlas: they reached these choices separately.
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Stencil Street Art
Stencil Street Art is one of BUGA UP Billboard Alteration’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell BUGA UP Billboard Alteration and Stencil Street Art apart Choice BUGA UP Billboard Alteration Stencil Street Art Type as image defining — Monochrome — defining Hand-lettering defining occasional Treated photography — defining Extreme scale contrast characteristic — Both descend from Dada in the family tree.
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West German Conceptual Film & Culture Poster (Hillmann and Rambow)
West German Conceptual Film & Culture Poster is one of BUGA UP Billboard Alteration’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell BUGA UP Billboard Alteration and West German Conceptual Film apart Choice BUGA UP Billboard Alteration West German Conceptual Film Found & vernacular imagery defining — Generous white space avoids characteristic Hand-lettering defining occasional Isolated object — defining Type as image defining occasional Both descend from Italian Futurism in the family tree.
— means the choice isn’t among the style’s recorded choices. Critics recorded each work’s choices with the styles’ descriptions in view, so this shows whether the descriptions hold together, not proof that they are right.
06
Combine it with
Styles BUGA UP Billboard Alteration pairs well with or plays against, from the research. Each is worked out as a combination: which style gives the type, the colours and the forms.
- Australian Poster Collective Screenprints Contrasts · Same Australian dissent, but studio screenprints made from scratch against alterations made on the advertiser's own board.
- Stencil Street Art Contrasts · Stencils bring their own imagery to the wall; BUGA UP takes the wall's existing imagery and turns it.
- Plain Tobacco Packaging Pairs well · The same public-health fight against tobacco branding, moved from vandalism to regulation.
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Sources
- Wikipedia, Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Utilising_Graffitists_Against_Unhealthy_Promotions)
- 'Civil Disobedience and Tobacco Control: The Case of BUGA UP', listed in the Wikipedia article's references (not independently verified)
- Cancer Council Western Australia monograph on tobacco control, as cited on Wikipedia (not independently verified)
How Stylogeny researches and checks a style: where the facts come from.