Skullphone image inserted into ClearChannel digital billboard ads (Not a hack, but paid for?)
UPDATE: Wired's Threat Level called ClearChannel, who said the Skullphone is not a hack, but a paid ad.
Laughing Squid reports: "An entity simply known as Skullphone has been altering Clear Channel digital billboards in Los Angeles, by hacking into the computer that runs the billboard and inserting the Skullphone image between the ads." Link
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The pixelation in the image looks like it if was knitted. If i learned something in boing boing is that somebody is bound to make a scarf with that image.
Awesome!
Please, oh, PLEASE, bring that hack to my neck of the woods!
They started rolling-out these obnoxious billboards here. Talk about fugly. And way too bright, especially at night. It's like a mini-sun.
This report appears to be false. Clear Channel says that it was a paid-for ad, not a hack.
See Wired's Threat Level blog.
But then, that would be a good spin control if they WERE being hacked.
On the other hand, what sort of self respecting hacker would have an all-Flash site?
Money is the ultimate hack.
This guy is a joke. He's been trying to insinuate this skullphone icon into an underground meme for years now. He's about as edgy as Angelyne.
I like the conspiracy theory where clear channel claims it was a paid ad to cover up for the fact that their billboards are hackable
Interesting that the first thought in many people's minds would be that this IS a hack, or some type of unauthorized use of the device.
It would never figure that this could be some new marketing strategy, a new generation of ad execs thinking outside the box.
Mr. ClearBillboad "We don't know who hacked into our systems, and we don't know when they will do this again. I guess all the public can do is just keep looking at our signs to see what those hackers are planning next."
Profit from the attention, but blame it on 'hackers'.
The same image appears on the side of building in Austin. I got a picture of it here on Flickr
Funny how, if it were a hack, it would be so cool, but since it's not, it's so fucking wack. It's not just a little less cool, but the opposite of cool. Well played, skullphone. Jesus.
Unless that's just some black belt-level spinning from Clear Channel, in which case you both win!
I have a hard time believing ClearChannel would willingly play an ad with an image that dark, paid or no. Far more benign imagery is kept out of the public memetosphere because it clashes with coprorate ideology, or at very least with their bottom line, if there's a difference. And if it were official, why would it still have interference artifacts? Well, legal or not, it achieved its aims of penetrating public conversation, at least for the moment.
Talk on your cell phone while driving and you die. That's the message right? The real conspiracy is who pays the skullphone guy?
I have a hard time believing ClearChannel would willingly play an ad with an image that dark
It would be perfect for the "Get off your phone and drive!" campaign.
I don't know advertising, but I wouldn't have thought bill board is sold by the day, just for this very reason; that some regular guy would do it.
Just how much would it have cost the street artist "skullphone" to run a billboard ad like this in the LA market for two days?
Or will ClearChannel say it was pro bono?
This is the image used by street artist Spazmat. I dont know if he was commissioned for this or if advertising companies stole his logo, but regardless, thats who it is...
I agree that it would have been awesome for it to have been a hack and a beautiful spin to say it was a paid ad.
It certainly looks edgy enough to be a hack. Except just go to the skullphone site and view the crappy geegaws this guy is selling. He is trying to run a business selling shlock. He is a hack, not a hacker.
Hack or not, that's a damned disturbing thing to see while out driving. For that factor alone I like it.
OMG! this image looks exactly like a Techno Tuesday comic of few months ago! Do anyone else know what I am talking about??
Just F-Y-I, folks, Clear Channel is completely full of shit. Damage control. Mayhap they should lock down access to the boards a little better instead of lying about it. Hack or no, this dude SHOT + SCORED.
dudes, check this out: http://fffff.at/major-times-square-hack
Damage control? They sell advertising! Somebody bought some! What's there to control? o.O
@ #24 Cavalier: You want us to believe someone who, as Mice said, sells crappy geegaws, has the sort of budget to buy ClearChannel advertising in a prominent spot on one of their higher end electronic billboards? I hope you yourself aren't in advertising; you're not particularly persuasive.
@ #15 Antinous: It would be perfect for the "Get off your phone and drive!" campaign.
Sure, if it were identified as such. Trusting the public to infer that message seems beyond advertisers' estimations of their audience's faculties.
@ #25 License Farm: It's an electronic billboard, I have them in my city, do you? The point of it being electronic is that they can rotate frequently or slowly through different ads. Notice this picture was also taken at night -- it could be 3am for all we know. Based on rotation -- the length and frequency of time the ad is being displayed -- surely that could put a discount on the price.
If what the comments say above are accurate, maybe this guy/girl/it has been trying to move this meme for some time. If it's several hundred to a thousand or two for a decent campaign to generate buzz like this -- well, sure, of course I think he could afford it.
Sometimes the answer is much more simple and obvious then we want it to be! :)
And you're continuing to ignore a larger truth: ClearChannel is a business, one which conspicuously embraces corporately-approved media and eschews edgier, indier, truly provocative content. It does not need nor want the business of rabble-rousers, no matter their aspirations to branding, not at 3 am nor 3 pm. In fact, I'd say there'd be a higher premium on running an electronic ad at night than during the day; the image has less ambient light with which to compete. If you don't believe me, look into Adbusters' attempts to get simple PSAs against overconsumption and media saturation put on CNN, the Superbowl, etc. The issue is not money; the issue is the message.
@ 27
Can you show me where this "larger truth" is? It's an advertising company. Where is this edgy provactive content they've refused? It feels like you're attributing much more to some evil conspiracy then just folks who post bills and expect payment. Like any other business they can choose who they want to do business with, but what at all about them makes them so sinister?
If you had anything about somebody trying to get on the billboard, sure, but as it is you didn't support your first statement.