I swear to God this giant billboard, which, incidentally, is probably illegal, screamed THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT until less than two weeks ago.
I know this because I kept riding by it on the streetcar – often in the rain, which was why I took the streetcar – and noted two things: ALRIGHT was spelled thus and, to make margins even on both sides, the word was hugely enlarged compared to the rest of the copy. (A psychosis clings to Avant Garde Gothic like a tapeworm that causes “designers” to use exactly this kind of layout, with flush left and right margins that necessitate huge changes in size.)
The variant spelling of all right is in fact the original spelling of the title of this, the latest lesberrific movie by Lisa Cholodenko. (See, inter alia, the press release [PDF] from Sundance concerning its premiere.) An early poster mockup used the variant spelling.
I guess everyone realized that the entire discourse about the film would be dominated by the “incorrect” (actually merely variant) spelling and a Decision Was Made. In this case it involved the reprinting and reinstallation of a gigantic banner.
I considered doing the pure journalistic thing of asking all sorts of reps to confirm or deny this is what happened. But I don’t have to: It is what happened because I saw it. And it’s been killing me! I had umpteen occasions to photograph the Before or ALRIGHT state of this billboard and didn’t, because I was in a moving vehicle at the time and because my usual bike route past that stretch of Queen in fact avoids Queen St. entirely. And because I had no reason to take a picture, being as I am nonclairvoyant.
If only I’d known this would become an object lesson in proofreading, I’d have gathered my own photographic evidence. At this point you’re just going to have to believe me. In some ways, this billboard has become a de facto entry on Unphotographable.