This simple billboard improvement on Lee Avenue in South Williamsburg had been one of our favorites since we spotted it last summer. It’s simple, direct, and best of all, manifesto-free. Except for the fact that somebody had beef with the little kid and crossed his face out completely, it’s a just a typical ad urging people to donate cars to charity .

It was a surprise this weekend to see the billboard had finally been replaced, although with with one very similar. Aside from the photo shopped peyos and Yiddish graffiti the ad is the same. Before we could look into it, the New York Times published the story yesterday.

The group advertises in Williamsburg, leaders of the organization say, because the Hasidic Jews of the Satmar sect, many of whom live in the neighborhood, are generous donors. But the original billboard was defaced last spring, apparently because it offended the religious sensibilities of some of the Satmars. It stayed that way until the boy’s makeover was revealed on Jan. 3.

“They don’t want to see a clean-cut boy without the traditional peyos that their own children have,” Chana Nestlebaum, the group’s public relations director, said, referring to the young Satmars’ side curls. “It’s of importance that the children portrayed in their community look like their own.”

In something of a pre-emptive strike, spray-painted graffiti was incorporated into the new billboard, which stands over the corner of Lee Avenue and Keap Street. The message reads, “Zeit menadev aer car,” Yiddish for “Donate your car.”

“We thought that injecting humor might also defuse tension,” said Rabbi Eli Mintz, the director of Oorah, “and perhaps even work to our advantage as a marketing tool, and bring in more cars as a result.”

It’s hoped that the faux graffiti will dissuade others from defacing the ad again, and even work as a marketing tool. If only they had staged video of the “graffiti” going up, this could have been as viral as Mark Ecko “painting” Air Force One.