Billboards are a simple and clever way to advertise on busy highways by targeting motorists.
It is a marketing tool that attracts businesses in need of closure and grieving families. Three billboards outside the 2017 film Missouri Ebb cover this theme. The fictional Mildred Hayes details her daughter’s unsolved murder by placing billboards around town to shame the local police department into action.
Director Martin McDonagh came up with the idea while traveling in Texas, where he saw a huge roadside sign placed by the anguished parents of a murdered woman. McDonald can’t remember the exact location of the signs, but they bear a striking resemblance to the case of Kathy Page of Vito, Texas.
Since the film’s release, many families have raised their appeals, hoping that the raging traffic below will provide an answer. Take a look at Grenfell Tower’s billboard murder.
On June 14, 2017, a small refrigerator fire started on the fourth floor of Grenfell Tower—a 24-story housing block in London.
Emergency Services arrived as flames began to creep up the external walls, which were coated in highly flammable materials. Residents were told not to leave as fire engulfed the building. Seventy-two people (including an unborn baby) died that night, many trapped in their own homes.
Eight months after the tragedy, most survivors were still homeless, and no charges had been brought. So a group called “Justice 4 Grenfell” copied the stark red and black signs from the Three Billboards film as part of a protest. The billboards were mounted on trucks and driven around London with the words “71 Dead,” “And Still No Arrests,” and “How Come?” splashed across them.
The now derelict Grenfell Tower is set to be demolished and a public inquiry is still ongoing.
