Michael Lebron Messages to the Public: The Earth Deserves a Break Today

Michael Lebron’s message, The Earth Deserves a Break Today, confronts New Yorkers with a warning about the deadly contribution McDonald’s makes to the earth’s environment through the use of Styrofoam containers made from polystyrene. The message begins with the image of an apple disappearing off the top of the screen followed by the text, “Hey, New York, can you name the hamburger chain that uses enough polystyrene to fill the Trade Towers 28 times every year?” Hands reach down to throw trash into a spinning globe as the text continues, “Polystyrene is the 5th largest source of toxic waste in the United States. It is not biodegradable. It can leach chemicals into the soil, water, and finally the food chain. Once inside the human body, it can cause cancer.” In the last frame, the globe, loaded with toxic waste, begins to rock and expand until it explodes in a “POW.”

In previous work, Lebron (b. 1954) has utilized graphic devices of advertising to address social, political, and environmental issues. Here, he explores the contradiction between a corporation’s behavior and their public image created by a skilled ad campaign. The artist explains, “I intend my work to comment on the constraints imposed upon the media environment, . . . constraints that shape our consciousness and have very real public policy consequences and consequences in terms of the activities that larger corporate interests can pursue beyond or in spite of public scrutiny.”

Messages to the Public formed a key part of the Public Art Fund’s long-term commitment to media-based artworks. Running from 1982 to 1990, the show featured a series of artists’ projects created specifically for the Spectacolor board at Times Square.

As Russell Miller from Ohio newspaper The Toledo Blade explained in his article on February 19, 1984, “every month, a different artist presents a 30-second animation on the Spectacolor light board—an 800-square-foot array of 8,000 red, white, blue, and green 60-watt bulbs that dominates the Times Square vista. The spot is repeated more than 50 times a day for two weeks, wedged into a 20-minute loop of computer-animated commercials.

“Jane Dickson, a painter, was working for Spectacolor, Inc. as an ad designer and computer programmer when, three and a half years ago, she first thought to use the light board to display noncommercial art.

“‘I picked that title,’ she said of Messages to the Public, ‘because I thought the propaganda potential from this project was terrific.’ The board, she noted, was regularly used for ‘commercial propaganda.’

“Dickson sought help from the Public Art Fund, an organization based here and dedicated to taking art out of the galleries and placing it in the city’s streets and parks.”

Project Director of the Public Art Fund Jessica Cusick explained, “We’re trying to do art that’s timely, has a message, is visually potent and is trying to deal with the fine line dividing fine art and commercial art.”