Last time we checked the Oorah billboard in South Williamsburg, it was to note the digital graffiti and alterations making the boy look more Hasidic. We’ve checked again, and it looks like the boy has given up on the old look, and peeled off the digitally altered, more Hasidic looking face like some sort of party trick. According to a local, the new text in Hebrew Yiddish reads “Happy Purim.” Somebody in Williamsburg is having too much fun in Paint Shop Pro.

The military is hard up for new recruits. It’s no secret, but we were still stunned by this billboard in the Bronx featuring a guy crowd surfing at a show under the message, “This moment brought to you by the U.S. Navy.” In small text, it reads, “It is not for ourselves alone that we serve.” While we don’t support using party photos to lure naive persons into battle, we will suggest one improvement for: Ditch the stock photo and get with Moshzilla, the internet’s most famous skanking party monster. We even made a mock-up for you all.

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.

Not all those who wander are lost and not all those who hang off rooftops painting incredible murals must do so in the dead of night. The New York Times feature Colossal Media, a Williamsburg based company keeping the tradition of hand painted outdoor advertising alive.

“People think hand-painted means graffiti,” said Mr. Moeller, who, as it happens, publishes the graffiti culture magazine Mass Appeal. “Or they worry we won’t be able to replicate an image with photorealism.”

Neil Marks, director of marketing for Comedy Central, which commissioned the “Freak Show” ad near Union Square, echoed that concern. “As tremendous a job as Colossal does in replicating the art,” he said, “I don’t know how comfortable I would be in hand-painting Jon Stewart’s face.”

Is Marks scared they’ll screw up Jon Stewart’s graying temples?

Photo of Wesc advertisement on Houston and Broadway from Collosal Media.

What does it mean when a fashionable car magazine features a dressed up bike messenger holding a bike on the cover? Intersection Magazine just thinks fixed gear bicycles (and vintage yachts!) make fashionable accessories for your car. The fashion spread of bike messengers with their bikes, the feature on ReBar’s Parking spot intervention and David Gallaugher’s grass lined wheel are interesting from a design and fashion perspective, but overlook what they mean to urban life: bikes are the quickest way through a city, excessive private parking deprives people of public space, and there just isn’t enough space to ditch our shoes and run barefoot in the grass. Considering Intersection Magazine’s manifesto, it’s not surprising they glossed over the problems cars cause.

Cars move us. Cars let us go where we want, when we want, how we want - they reflect our desires as they answer our needs. On the street, they’re our clothes. On the move, they’re our homes - we use them as our living rooms, offices, studios and sometimes our bedrooms.

Only 2 in 10 New York City residents even own a car, and unless they have a congestion fetish, they’re not effective for selfishly getting them where they want, when they want or how they want. Even more ridiculous are Intersection’s “Urban Aggressive Off-Roading” videos championing SUVs recklessly driving through roundabouts and skateparks, the sort of spaces ReBar and Gallaugher were promoting through their art.

Get out of here. New York City has enough people being killed by vehicles.