fred cole went to war in the Middle East towards the end of World War II and claimed to have entered Germany driving a tank. But he will be remembered most for his successful campaign with BUGA UP.
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B.U.G.A. U.P.
Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions
NEWS: March 2009
fred cole went to war in the Middle East towards the end of World War II and claimed to have entered Germany driving a tank. But he will be remembered most for his successful campaign with BUGA UP.
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NOT A GROUP - A MOVEMENT
A lot of paint has sprayed from the can since the inception of BUGA UP in October 1979. Since then the number of graffitists actively involved in BUGA UP grew from three, working in the inner city of Sydney to people working across Australia, and across the world!
People from 8 to 71 years old were active in BUGA UP. These included entire families - carpenters, domestic and health workers, graphic artists, hairdressers, taxi-drivers, a wrestler, journalists, students, pensioners, research and metal workers, kindergarten teachers, technicians, public servants, unionists and clergy - to name but a few!
Originally the BUGA UP campaign was broadly aimed at all unhealthy billboard advertisements. However, in response to public opinion we soon focussed our attention on tobacco & alcohol promotions and other promotions that were socially and visually assaulting.
This site is dedicated to the activistes who have not only risked arrest, but injury through fence-jumping, scaffold-climbing, dog-chasing and the dreaded spray-back on those cold windy nights.
The essay, 
"Civil Disobedience and Tobacco Control: The Case of BUGA UP" by Simon Chapman [2,612 KB] provides some additional information about the history of BUGA UP.
Updated March 2009