Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions

Altered advertising.

Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions, or B.U.G.A. U.P. is an Australian subvertising artistic movement that detourns or modifies with graffiti billboard advertising that promotes something they deem unhealthy.

The movement started in inner-city Sydney in October 1979, later spreading to Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide and Perth. It has been active ever since, although their peak of activity was in the late 1970s and early-mid 1980s. Many of the members came from professional and university-educated backgrounds. A founding member was Bill Snow, who first started to graffiti tobacco billboards, and continues to be active in anti-smoking and littering campaigns. Together, Bill Snow, Ric Bolzan and Geoff Coleman coined the acronym BUGAUP and began adding it to the graffitied billboards, to link the graffiti to a movement rather than the random activity of individuals.

The movement aimed mainly at cigarette and alcohol advertising, often blanking out letters and adding others to promote their view that the product is unhealthy. Cola and soft drink ads were also targeted.

The movement did not formalize itself as a group with memberships or meetings. Graffitists "joined" by signing the BUGAUP name to their work. BUGAUP graffiti spread rapidly across Australia and then overseas.

Former New South Wales politician Arthur Chesterfield-Evans was a member of BUGAUP before entering politics.[1]

Other well-known BUGAUP members were the late Lord Bloody Wog Rolo and Fred Cole.

See also

• Billboard Liberation Front (aka Billboard Improvement)

External links

• B.U.G.A. U.P. website

References

• Civil Disobedience and Tobacco Control: The Case of BUGA UP
• B.U.G.A. U.P. : Autumn catalogue 1980, National Library of Australia
• Buga-up on Trial, National Library of Australia
• "Bugga Up (Smoking History)", George Negus Tonight, ABC TV
• "No ifs, no butts - these boys were tough", Sydney Morning Herald, 12 October 2002
• "Fred Cole", Sydney Morning Herald, 16 March 2009
• "BUGA UP - You've come a long way, baby", Overland, 23 August 2012