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The Hollywood Sign Read ‘Hollyboob’ Briefly, But It Wasn’t Just A Cheeky Prank
By Mikelle Leow, 04 Feb 2021
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Image via logoboom / Shutterstock.com
All it took was a switch of two letters to make a statement.
On Monday, the iconic Hollywood sign was layered with new materials to spell out “Hollyboob,” but what looked to be cheeky wordplay was really a response to social media censorship.
Julia Rose, a social media influencer and founder of digital publication Shag Mag, which touts itself as a current rival of Playboy, claimed responsibility for the stunt, justifying that she wanted to take a stand against Instagram’s no-tolerance rules towards nudity.
Rose and five others were shortly arrested for trespassing the area, and park rangers soon took down the tarps that Rose and company had put up.
“That was way uncool (not to mention the terrain is quite steep and dangerous),” tweeted Captain Steve Lurie, commanding officer of the Los Angeles police department in the Hollywood area.
Rose told the Los Angeles Times that she got the idea to overhaul the Hollywood sign last year, after Instagram disabled her company and personal accounts, which had six million followers between them.
She described that she was aware she was “pushing the boundaries of censorship” on Instagram, but the platform and its parent company Facebook seemed to be more forgiving towards renowned brands like Playboy.
“We don’t allow nudity on Instagram, and we removed these accounts for repeatedly breaking those rules,” a spokesperson for Facebook later replied, via CNET.
One unforeseen takeaway from the prank, Rose shared, was that people took it as a message for breast cancer awareness, as well.
that one time I changed the Hollywood sign to #hollyboob pic.twitter.com/IrIC6DpXHO
— Julia Rose (@JuliaRose_33) February 2, 2021
guys.... I finally fixed the Hollywood Sign 👯♀️ #hollyboob pic.twitter.com/UsseSSkkRO
— Julia Rose (@JuliaRose_33) February 1, 2021
[via CNET, cover image via logoboom / Shutterstock.com
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