William Snow otherwise known as Bill or Billy was an anti-smoking
activist
Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...
in Australia. In addition to his anti-smoking activities, he was an avid campaigner against nuclear weapons and destruction of the environment and was a strong supporter of Aboriginal Rights.
Early life
Bill was born on 31 January 1938.
Whilst in Bundeena Bill was contracted by the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
to print testamurs for graduating students and acquired a hand-operated
letterpress printing
Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing for producing many copies by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against individual sheets of paper or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable t ...
machine to print them. This printing method was preferred because the typed letters were
embossed into the paper. Bill continued to print the testamurs until the technology was superseded by laser printing in the 1990s.
Cigarette advertising and smoking
Bill Snow was one of Australia's early environmental and fresh air campaigners. When a fellow anti-smoking campaigner, Brian McBride, sued a bus driver for assaulting him with tobacco smoke on a non-smoking bus, Bill and Gayle Russell came forward in his support. This action led to the formation of the Non-Smokers Rights Movement in 1978, later to become the Non Smokers Movement of Australia.
Bill travelled in his van with 'BUGA UP Rules OK' painted on the front, while rainbows and dolphin motifs were painted on the sides by his partner and fellow graffitist Danielle Kluth. This mobile display helped to publicise his environmental causes. He drove around with spray cans and a bucket with paint bombs floating in it.
His anti-smoking actions took many forms, for example he collected cigarette butts from sacred sites and elsewhere, put them in large plastic bottles with labels like ‘Collected at Ayers Rock (
Uluru
Uluru (; ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone monolith. It outcrop, crops out near the centre of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory, south-west of Alice Spri ...
) with information about how much damage they did to wildlife, and set up displays at fairs and schools to increase awareness and encourage action against tobacco and environmental pollution. He was an engaging character, though not always tactful and sometimes plain cantankerous. He would confront tobacco company salespeople and other representatives and then engage them about the error of their ways. His van was used as a 'BUGA UP Embassy' outside
Leo Burnett’s (tobacco) Advertising Agency in North Sydney in 1984.
[http://bugaup.org/press/NST19840509.pdf Guess what BUGA-UP has gone and done]
He was arrested and spent time in gaol for his billboard graffiti, as naturally he refused to pay the fine. But the fact that this happened made BUGA UP the most radical health promotion group in the world, which served to make all other anti-tobacco actions moderate, and re-frame the debate globally.
Filmography
* Billboard Bandits A short History of B.U.G.A. U.P. by Kathyn Milliss
See also
Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions
References
External links
The St George & Sutherland Shire Leader - Bill Snow obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snow, Bill
1938 births
2018 deaths
Australian health activists
Anti-smoking activists
Activists from Sydney