EXCLUSIVE: photos of BofA's new #OWS-themed ad campaign

I have no idea who shot these, or who is responsible. Update: here are some daytime shots, from the San Francisco Mission district.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: advertising • bailout • bank • bank of america • bofa • capitalism • culture jamming • economic • Economy • econopocalypse • finance • joke • not a real ad campaign you guys • occupy wall street • ows • parody • prank • satire • this is a joke • this is not real

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Will Traxler

…….The Fuck?

Edit: For a second I thought this was a serious ad campaign
Brainspore

Clever. I hope whoever put those up was mindful of how many security cameras were in the vicinity.

I gotta get me one of those vinyl cutting machines.
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones
  
  They were put there by the Invisible Hand of the Market.
  - Andy
    
    an invisible handjob.
    - AirPillo
      
      I’m holding you responsible for the coffee spit-take that caused. (*Pushes like button*)
- Mike Newell
  
  i walked past a dude in the mission the other day who was openly spraying a wall at 9PM infront of people. It seems like street art is generally accepted in the mission. Even if its against the law.
thebelgianpanda

That is a pretty clever prank. The font is a bit off, but after looking at legit BofA typography it all looks a bit disjointed.
http://setheag.wordpress.com/ Seth Eag

Ha, ha, ha…of course I knew it was a joke before I started writing my angriest tweet of the day. I get jokes. Err….
http://www.facebook.com/daen.de.leon Daen de Leon

Who is this Invisible Hans? I’d like to meet him, but obviously, that’s difficult.
educationreformer312

Hey dudes. It’s an awesome prank. Quit nerding up a very nice moment, virgins.
http://www.jm3.net/ John Manoogian III (jm3)

Those of you commenting about the BofA typeface being off may be dismayed to know that BofA’s house typeface is named HIGHER STANDARDS. http://seeminglee.com/portfolio/bank-of-america/content/fonts.html
- thebelgianpanda
  
  >.<
- ChurchTucker
  
  Damn, the font is no longer available from that link. Anyone else have it handy?
corydodt

That is really well done. I was expecting it to be a prank, but the “100%” thing really threw me off.. that is so damn close to being an actual corporate slogan. And the “1%” part is so tone-deaf, it might as well be an actual corporate slogan.
- bo1ngbolnguser001
  
  how many corporate slogans do you know that are this stupid?
  - http://twitter.com/nicoles Nicole Aptekar
    
    I’d say most of theirs, honestly. Mini Savings Maximum Reward? What the hell does that even mean?
  - http://plantsarethestrangestpeople.blogspot.com/ mr_subjunctive
    
    how many corporate slogans do you know that are this stupid?
    
    All of them?
  - http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch
    
    There’s a local one here in Maryland. S&M Paving. “We’ll meet or beat any estimate.”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

I love this kind of “cultural jamming.”

Stealth snarkiness can get through the memetic immune system of people who are turned off by louder and more confrontational methods.
http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Mari Lwyd

I have no idea who shot these, where it happened, or who did it. – Xeni Jardin

mmhmm, suuuuuure and Mark totally doesn’t have a vinyl cutting machine.
n3m6

probably done by BoA themselves, through a skunkworks team
cratermoon

Next time: http://www.etchworld.com/ecom-catshow/Glass+Etching+Supplies.html
- Cowicide
  
  You first. [cow nudges cratermoon with stick]
  
  Anyway, this BofA stuff is a much better job than when I had 7-11 endorsing the impeachment of Bush while he was in office. I did it quickly and put it on crooked as hell, plus no one would believe 7-11 was saying that anyway. Surprisingly it stayed on that door for a pretty long time.
  
  I’ve learned much today on what to do in the future if I was to do such a thing again which I wouldn’t because it’s wrong.
  
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/49403380@N00/241150103/in/photostream/lightbox/
wayne Johnson

The Bank of America is one of the banks that make up the Federal Reserve Bank. It must be put OUT OF BUSINESS! People MUST understand that there is NO way to EVER pay back the interest that we Americans are paying when our Government buys money, at interest, from this institution.

Remember this: The Federal Reserve Bank is NOT Federally owned. If all the monet floating within our system is only the principle amount purchased from the Federal Reserve Bank, then from WHERE does the money come to pay back the interest?

It does NOT exist!

Meaning?

Eventually, the Federal Reserve Bank WILL own every piece of property in this country and every other country in which it operates.

IT MUST BE SHUT DOWN!
http://twitter.com/hussiens Hussien Salama

I swear, I was convinced, I think it was the Spanish that did it for me. Bravo, and like many of you, if this wasn’t a joke, I was about to raise a bit of hell, and I consider myself non-affiliated with either side.
semiotix

Actually, it would be pretty goddamn clever of BofA to use that for real. After all, the OWS people can’t possibly hate them any more, and the mushy middle might be amused.

Not that I think they’ll be clever.
FrakSnark

The 1% needs our production, some subversive next level shit. “Can you hear us now” was on to something.
Carl Herbert

Oh, man… This is awesome.
Rob Butler

BofA probably did it to distract everybody while they apply to trademark the term “99%” so they can sue anybody that uses it for royalties in a RIAA bullshititarian kind of way.
DataShade

From _Nazi Punks Fuck Off_ comes the line:
“You’d trash a bank if you had real balls.”
I hear and obey, Lord Jello!
Erin W

Real or hoax, it took some brass ones either way.
Cowicide

Building a better America, 1% at a time.

Oh man, I would probably actually get aroused if I saw that while walking by a BofA or Well’s Fargo. Hilarious (and sadly true at same time).
Emo Pinata

How did Bank of America write a whole slew of pro 1% slogans and then think they could claim it was for the 99%?

It’s so insulting to say “together we are 100%” or “1% at a time”. Fuck that noise.
- Drew_Gehringer
  
  That’s the point. these aren’t real BofA slogans, they’re joke ones someone stuck on their windows when no-one was looking
  - Emo Pinata
    
    What’s sad is that I totally can see Bank of America being this dumb.
http://www.facebook.com/Hamlet.Au Wagner James Au

What sucks is, you go into the Mission district Bank of America, and the whole place is staffed by hard working Latino-Americans from blue collar/immigrant backgrounds who worked hard to get into this lowest rung of the white collar professional class, and who will be the first folks to get cut if the bank starts feeling the pinch. Just something to keep in mind.
http://twitter.com/andrewliebchen Andrew Liebchen

CBS had a radio ad telling us to “occupy our couch” and watch their insipid TV shows. That was no fake.
zebbart

A car dealership in Brookville, PA has a radio ad saying “Here in Brookville we don’t have time to camp in the street because we’re too busy working at our jobs, or looking for them. But you can come down here and occupy a new Ford…” Seriously.
http://www.lightning-rose.com/ LightningRose

In my day, people just torched BofA’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRICFUJlH-U
pianeon

It wouldn’t be that surprising if it were real. Who talks about being green more than oil companies?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6PlpiZs90g
Richard Schneider

Oh, let it be true! So I can yell, “Hey, shithead! We’re not ‘together’ any more!”
mitlorak

BofA’s logotype is Franklin Gothic Condensed. Hats off to whoever pulled this prank for knowing their 20th Century sans serif typography. The kerning is a bit loose after the cap “T” in “Together”, but otherwise it’s all, shall we say, right on the money.

BofA’s serif face may have gotten re-dubbed “Higher Standard” by some branding huckster, but the serif type (the letters with little feet, y’all) used on the ATMs is by all appearances ITC Century Book. At any rate, the link to the design standards above is for Web usage, and not signage or print.

To quote Roger Black: World Domination Through Typography!
Norma Armon

As in all “corporate” communications attempting to reach the non-English speaking public, the Spanish is gobblydegook – why can’t even the 99ers CARE about professionally translating? We have the translator brigades working on the documents produced by #OWS – the activists who put this clever prank together can appeal to them for help -