Three Billboards

Submission 12,261

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About

Three Billboards refers to the visual homages to the 2017 film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri used in various protests. After the film's release, various protests used the three red signs with black text to express their dissent.

Origin

On November 10th, 2017, the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was released in the United States.^[1] In the film, the protagonist (played by Francis McDormand) rents three red billboards and places the words (shown below), in sequence, "'Raped While Dying', 'And Still No Arrests?', and 'How Come, Chief Willoughby?'"

Spread

On January 20th, 2018, Twitter^[2] user @Pappiness tweeted a picture from the 2018 Women's March in New York City. The image featured three protest signs that read "'Misogynistic Racist, Installed by Putin' "And Still No Impeachement?' 'How Come Speaker Ryan'" The post (shown below) received more than 100 retweets and 250 likes in one month.

The following month, the British advertising agency BBH Labs used the style to bring attention to the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 71 people in West London in 2017. The signs read: 71 DEAD, AND STILL NO ARRESTS? HOW COME?’" The billboards were part of the campaing called Justice4Grenfell. On February 15th, the official Justice 4 Grenfell Twitter^[3] account @officialJ4G tweeted a picture of the billboards (shown below, center). The post received more than 14,000 retweets and 16,000 likes in less than two weeks.

The follwoing day, an activist group parked three trucks bearing Three Billboard-style signs on the sides that read "'Slaughtered in school' 'And still no gun control?' 'How come, Marco Rubio?'" The signs^[4] were parked outside the headquarters of Florida Senator Marco Rubio urging him to act on gun control following the Marjory Stoneman High School shooting.

Several media outlets covered these protest signs, including The Guardian,^[5] The Drum,^[6] The Hill^[7] and more.