To promote the outdoor awards the Outdoor Media Association (OMA) has hijacked two APN billboards and played a hand in the medium/message debate.

What happens when you take a fictional pole poster or overused T-shirt graphic and put it on a billboard? These two examples are the first iterations in a campaign that will play out across Sydney and Melbourne.

“This is an exciting venture for us. Last year’s Outdoor Awards was a great success. This year, we wanted to play our part in encouraging new uses of outdoor and providing inspiration for the industry as a whole. Being able to allow artists who normally don’t get the chance to have their work shown on a large billboard has been particularly exciting for both them and us. And we suspect the work will get recognition and interest from the general public as well as the industry,” said Charmaine Moldrich, CEO of the OMA.

The billboards provide a link to blog site www.someonewillproject.com. The idea is that “in the future someone will use billboards in potentially new ways to greater effect.”

The blog pitches the python execution:

“Someone Will…scare a community, cry wolf, blow up a pole poster, play with the truth, do anything to get a reaction…

On Anzac weekend, this billboard went up in Pyrmont, Sydney on a busy corner street. Without any big announcement or media leaks, the poster was left to its own devices to see what reaction it got. Hundreds of calls and text messages received. Including a few from the TV networks. Some claimed to have found the snake. Others wanted to know if it had been found. Some were downright creepy. Is it ok for a billboard to play with the truth? What’s wrong with harmless fun?”