John Doe, an icon of the LA punk scene, joins us to play songs from his new album, and to talk about a new memoir about the old days ... If you’ve been called for jury duty in downtown LA, there’s a good chance you went to the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. But who was Clara Shortridge Foltz? ... You've seen the AIDS Healthcare Foundation billboards: they’re outrageous, memorable, and very effective. We talk with the man behind AHF’s often controversial outdoor ad campaigns.
Meet the man behind some of LA's most notorious — and effective — billboards
From their "Feel the Burn?" campaign, which parodies Bernie Sanders' ads, to the ads linking Tindr and Grindr to STD's, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's billboards and bus boards are some of the most talked-about and effective outdoor advertising campaigns around.
So, who gets the credit — or the blame?
Jason Farmer, Senior Director of Creative for AHF. He's the man responsible for the 20-30 AHF billboards you’ll see around Southern California at any given time, plus the bus and bench boards, not to mention many more outdoor ads across America, supported by AHF’s $1.3 billion budget.
I sat down with Farmer at AHF's Los Angeles offices to talk about the creative process.
What are you trying to get the person on the street to do?
What we want people to do it is to look into themselves and to say okay, maybe I do need to go get tested for the hookup night that I had where I’m not so sure I used protection, or anything like that so. We’ve been called “slut shamers,” those type of things. But it really is just to get to the core of people and say, “Hey, this is an easy way for you to go find out, and get the relief you need from having that guilt, that worry inside of you.”
Let's talk about the Tinder and Grindr billboards, which correlate using Tinder and using Grindr with catching STDs.
We said we just want to be able to advertise our services on your apps. And there was a lot of pushback from them on allowing us to be able to push testing messages and safe sex messages, because you know people don't really want to hear that. They don’t want to think about that when they're trying to hook up.
Are you saying that the billboards came about because there was pushback from Tinder and Grindr?
Right. The idea was that we wanted to create just a very easy way for people to go onto the app and be able to look up safe sex services in their area.
And what happened?
They went up on, I think, a Friday at 7:00 a.m. And by around 9 or 10 we got a cease and desist letter (from Tinder).
Did they go ahead then and give you the ads?
They did give us the ability to have the resources on their app for people to link up to us to get tested, and not just our services, but services that are available to them wherever they are.
And was it a quid pro quo, where you said OK we'll take the billboards down, but we want these we want these ads on there?
Yeah, after that worked out we said OK we're going to you know pull all the billboards we don't want to keep on pushing that message.
You make a lot of jokes on the billboards. What's too sophomoric for you? What pushes it too far?
We don't tend to be able to push it too far just because we have so many channels that we have to go through with a billboard companies, and because there are certain standards that they have to follow, and they have to worry about legalities and things like that you know. But you know as long as it gets people's attention and makes them think about their own sexual practices then we're willing to push it as far as we can.
Do you have something planned for Trump?
No. I've been trying to work on it. You know it's not as easy as “Feel the Burn?” which we just pulled out of the ether and was just waiting to happen. We’re open to suggestions if anybody has any.
You guys are bomb throwers. You're stirring the pot. I have a hard time believing that (getting negative PR) isn’t part of the calculation.
You know, if it’s a problem, we have to put it out there. If it’s going to get negative feedback, that's fine, we'll deal with it.
Do you look at billboards now in a different way and do you critique them? And what really just bugs you about bad billboards.
We've put together a basic idea of what's going to be effective. We’ve found that it's best to stick with three to four words, tops, as your headline. “Feel the burn?” “No judgmental BS.” And then just have the basic driver …
The driver being the call to action?
Exactly, the driver being “go to this website.” And then, just an image that is really striking that will catch people's attention. So that's what we feel is the magic formula. And what really gets to me is when I see billboards that have like ten words on the billboard, they have a phone number, they have a logo, they have a website that is 30 characters long. So they kind of just throw up on the billboard with all their messaging. And it's not effective because you have a very limited time to get to the person, and get your message across. You have to keep it simple.
Punk icon John Doe has a book about the old days and an album of new music
UPDATE: Like what you're hearing? John Doe plays with Exene Cervenka at The Regent in downtown LA on Thursday, Sept. 15. Tickets run from $17.50 to $27.50. Cheap!
In the multi-author memoir "Under the Big Black Sun, a personal history of LA Punk," John Doe and other seminal voices tell stories about the scene that electrified LA in the late 1970s. Doe joined Off-Ramp host John Rabe to talk about the book and also play a couple tunes from his new album.
Doe starts his portion of "Under the Big Black Sun" by giving us in our armchairs a taste of walking onto the stage of the Whiskey-A-Go-Go on the Sunset Strip in the late 1970s.
When we walked down those stairs, I knew it would go from zero to a hundred in a blink, cymbals would crash & DJ Bonebrake would hit his drums so hard that he’d probably knock something over or snap a hi-hat pedal in two. I might pull the cord out of my guitar & stop the giant, rumbling bass. And we would forget about the a--hole soundman who said we were too loud.
After all the nights of rehearsals & learning songs, bad equipment at the Masque & other DIY shows, this would be louder than hell & there would be sounds hurtling past & swirling around us all & somewhere amidst that mayhem, there would be a moment when everything would slow down & I would see things slo-mo.
I’d catch someone’s face distorted by a shoulder or the palm of another’s hand. Or Exene’s hair would rise into a fan as she flipped it into or out of her face. I would glimpse her dark red lips making wonderful sounds that I knew were the only sound that could be made at that moment. She would tell the truth to all these people who knew she would tell the truth. There would be flashing lights & sharp, piercing guitar notes & monstrous chords & Billy would look like he was straddling a wide creek ...
There would be sweat and DJ would have no shirt on. He would shine w/ the power of his driving hands & arms & legs & his eyes would roll back in his head & his chin would tilt upward and sometimes steam would rise from his back.
And we knew then that we were unstoppable & that we had power. And that something was definitely happening here.
-- John Doe, "Under the Big Black Sun"
In our interview, Doe talks about the angst and emptiness of America in the 1970s that led him and the other punks to get onstage and belt it out.
But he and his coauthors – including his X-wife Exene Cervenka, Chris D., Robert "El Vez" Lopez, Dave Alvin and Jane Wiedlin – also tell stories that, in composite, show these were much more than angry young people in revolt: They led real lives, hung out with friends, decorated their apartments, and collaborated with each other in a way that created a real era that still matters today.
We also talk in-depth about his new album, "The Westerner," and we have to say it was a real treat to sit two feet from stardom as Doe belted a couple tunes from it in the Mohn Broadcast Center.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-FoNuam6HQ
You can hear all of our interview – including "Sunlight" and "Get On Board" – just by clicking the audio player.
Singer/Songwriter Mia Doi Todd on how the Los Angeles River informs her music
Singer and guitarist Mia Doi Todd has lived in Los Angeles nearly all her life. She plays folk music with a profound sense of place, and some of her best known songs evoke Los Angeles — her personal life, her neighborhood, and the Los Angeles River.
That’s where she met Off-Ramp Contributor and Dublab co-founder Mark McNeill.
Here's the video for Todd's 2006 song "My Room is White"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5rNWWKCoZk
Todd's latest album is called "Songbook." It's a collection of cover songs—she performs work by Neil Young, Prince and Joni Mitchell. Here's her version of The Cure's "Close To Me:"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEpmJn00sZE
You can purchase "Songbook" through Ring Records.