Three billboards (38)

How three billboards became the new global protest method

71 dead

And still no arrests?

How come?

Three billboards bearing these words, in reference to the people who lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower fire, were attached to lorries and driven around London, including past the Houses of Parliament, before being parked outside the Grenfell complex. The protest was inspired by the award-winning film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which centres on Mildred Hayes, who rents three abandoned billboards to draw attention to the unsolved murder of her teenage daughter. The red and black signs – “Raped while dying”, “And still no arrests?”, “How come, Chief Willoughby?” – become symbols of a grieving mother’s fight for justice against all odds: the police chief, the fictional Midwestern town she lives in and the loss that continues to haunt her. Since the film’s release, visual homages have popped up around the world calling attention to a wide range of issues. 

• More examples followed. An activist parked three trucks carrying billboards outside a Florida senator’s office, days after 17 people were killed in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school. “Slaughtered in school”, “And still no gun control”, “How come, Marco Rubio?”, they said.
• Activists believe the power of advertising can be harnessed to remind people how little has been done to deliver justice to oppressed and bereaved people.