BUGA-UP is a quintessentially Australian and larrikin activist movement that originated in Sydney in October 1979. The group emerged in response to unhealthy advertisements, particularly those promoting tobacco, alcohol and junk food. Its core activity involved “billboard hijacking” – the alteration of billboard ads using graffiti to critique and subvert the messages, often with the aim of highlighting the harmful effects of the products being promoted. Graffiti with attitude.

The movement grew out of two earlier movements: the “Non-Smokers Rights Movement” and the “Movement Opposed to the Promotion of Unhealthy Products” (MOP UP). Founders Bill Snow, Ric Balzan and Geoff Coleman decided that direct action would be more effective using satire on billboards, linked by the simple and decidedly more catchy acronym BUGA-UP (“bugger up”).

The movement was informal and leaderless with no official membership. Individuals simply joined by engaging in the act of defacing billboards with messages, often including the “BUGA-UP” signature. The idea was that anyone at all could resonate with the concept, pick up a spray can and then contribute to the war against tobacco promotion and disease.

When on the job, a BUGA-UP painter would typically carry three cans of spray paint; black, red and silver. Additional colours were used when necessary. Ladders were sometimes used, and a skilled painter could even work from above a billboard, although we gather from various member reminiscences that upside down writing with a spay can is an experience that has few comparisons.

Billboard companies started to lift them higher and higher off the ground in an attempt to take them beyond the reach of embellishment. In response to this BUGA-UP developed and open-sourced the design of an extension poll that operated the spray cans from a distance.

Many members came from professional and university-educated backgrounds. This helped elevate the movement’s reputation beyond what it would be if it was just the work of angry civilians. General medical practitioner Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, a BUGA-UP member who would later serve as a NSW upper house politician remarked in an online interview with The Medical Republic: “I used to spray a few billboards on my way to radio calls (as a GP). I think I probably saved more lives with a spray can than I ever did with a scalpel.”

BUGA-UP quickly gained traction across Australia, including in Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide – and spread to international locations as well.

The BUGA-UP approach was part of a broader global trend known as “culture jamming”, which uses creative resistance to challenge mainstream media and advertising, often using mass media to produce ironic or satirical commentary.

One of the most notable impacts of BUGA-UP was its role in the debate surrounding tobacco advertising in Australia. The group's actions helped to raise awareness about the dangers of tobacco use and were a catalyst for the eventual ban on tobacco advertising in the country in 1992. Activists involved in the movement risked legal penalties and public backlash, but their efforts were recognised as a powerful form of protest against corporate exploitation of public spaces and public health.

The movement's legacy remains influential in both the art and activism worlds, especially in the context of anti-advertising and health campaigns

Story Idea: Simeon King
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References

bugaup.org
wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Utilising_Graffitists_Against_Unhealthy_Promotions
medicalrepublic.com.au/satirists-spray-cans-defeated-big-tobacco

Images

1. BUGA-UP does Marboro. Credit: bugaup.org
2. Bill Snow, one of the BUGA-UP founders
3 to 6. BUGA-UP work. Credit: bugaup.org
7. Marlboro "It's a bore" North Sydney
8. Spray can on a stick. Open-sourced by BUGA-UP.
9. Team BUGA-UP
10. Video: "Billboard Bandits" A short History of B.U.G.A. U.P. by Kathryn Milliss,