Location: Arcadia, CA.

Year: 1992-93 or thereabouts.

I’ve had this photo for about 15 years or longer, now. One day I was riding through my hometown of Arcadia, CA and on a major street I see this billboard. At first I didn’t notice anything, but something caught my attention and the I did a double-take and thought “What the…?” The vandals had done such a good job of getting rid of the “s” on the end of Virginia Slims and replaced it with an “e” that was the correct font, the correct color of orange, and I was simply stunned. It looked so natural that you started wondering if it was a real billboard or a public service message, but sure enough, if you looked closely you could see that the billboard had indeed been vandalized. I went home, got a camera, and went back to take this shot. It was just too good to pass up.