The Best of NYC Billboards in Recent Memory

A federal appeals court ruled today that it was totally fine for the City of New York to impose limits on the number of billboards near roads and parks. That might seem bad and anti-free-speech-y, but it's actually good, because the suit was originally lodged by a number of big corporations like Clear Channel that market billboards. So this is a victory for the Small People Who Can Afford Big Billboards? NYC! NYC! NYC! Anyway, we thought we'd celebrate the occasion by revisiting a few of our favorite billboard stories, ones paid for both the Big and Small people of this Big Apple.

[jump] YaVaughnie Wilkins had a dream, and that dream involved a big billboard...

1) YaVaughnie Wilkins, upset that her former man (Oracle president Charles Phillips) left her for... his own wife, spends $250,000+ on a number of billboards around the country and in our very own Midtown West. [picture of Billboard/http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/01/is_revenge_worth_250000_and_pu.html]

2) Weatherproof uses President Obama as a celebrity endorsement on a big Times Square ad. Without his permission, of course. "A Leader in Style," indeed. [picture/http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2010/01/white_house_upset_over_another.html]

3) A mildly tasteless ad for Jet airways Photoshops (maybe they used MS Paint, though, it's really not graphic design magic we're talking here) a bindi onto the Statue of Liberty's forehead. Because they fly to India or something. In their defense, they say she was already wearing a sari. [picture/http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/05/lady_liberty_gets_a_bindi_1.html]

4) A big billboard advising us to keep our chins up in this recession because great things have happened in a recession before and will in the future is donated by an "anonymous East Coast donor who was depressed about how the country was reacting to the economy's tailspin." Hm. [picture/http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/07/americas_keep_calm_and_carry_o.html]