These billboards celebrate America’s national parks to call out DOGE cuts
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These billboards celebrate America’s national parks to call out DOGE cuts
To the casual observer, the work of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, can seem abstract and confusing. It’s used purposefully misleading data visualization and cuts to government agencies that aren’t always as widely known as, say, NASA.
For a new billboard campaign, though, one group is trying to make DOGE cuts easier to understand by focusing on one agency every American knows, and right on the eve of the start of summer vacation: the National Park Service, or NPS.
More Perfect Union, a left-leaning nonprofit and publisher, is out with a new nationwide National Parks billboard campaign that ties DOGE cuts to reduced staff and visiting hours at some of America’s most gorgeous destinations. It’s the group’s first out-of-home campaign, and it’s a smart one too, taking a national issue and localizing it with specific billboards for certain states, like for Saguaro National Park in Arizona and Valley Forge National Historical Park in Pennsylvania. The group tells me it has 300 billboards up in 40 cities.
Each billboard reads “Greetings From” in a swirly script font with the all-caps national park name written out in white and green and a retro-inspired postcard style. It’s a bit of heritage tourism design reoriented towards advocacy, and it follows a trend of Democrats turning to the great outdoors to visually convey pro-environmental messages in ways that celebrate local landmarks and shared natural heritage, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) 2019 “The Green New Deal” posters and Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-Ariz.) 2022 campaign “Arizona’s Natural Treasures” posters.
The billboards make note of parks with reduced hours and staff, and for Death Valley National Park, the hottest place on Earth, it’s a safety issue. “Heat Deaths Rise, Safety Staff Cut,” More Perfect Union’s billboard for the California park reads. The black-and-gold dollar bill logo DOGE uses on its website is shown on a banner on each billboard that says “Made Possible By DOGE.”
“National parks are some of our nation's most cherished resources,” Faiz Shakir, More Perfect Union’s executive director, says. “They provide a space that all people — old, young, rich, poor — can enjoy equally and find their lives are enriched by amazing experiences. But that’s not something oligarchs care much about. Some elected officials and unelected billionaires would rather privatize or eliminate our public services, we believe strongly in the need for great public parks and outdoor spaces that all Americans can enjoy.”
Already this year, thousands of employees have left their jobs or been fired at NPS and its parent agency, the Department of Interior, with more job cuts finalized earlier this month, according to the trade publication Government Executive. Those lost jobs inspired a wave of protests at national parks that, like Tesla showrooms, have become favorite protest spots of Trump’s second term. Clearly something’s resonating.
By playing up what DOGE cuts mean for America’s national parks just as Americans gear up for Memorial Day, these billboards make DOGE more tangible. Suddenly, Trump’s agenda isn’t far away in Greenland or at an empty port somewhere, it’s with you on vacation, holding up your family visit to the Grand Canyon or adding hours to your camping trip in Joshua Tree. By visualizing what a slashed government workforce means for America’s natural treasures, the billboards help bring the cost of DOGE home.
Previously in Yello:
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Want to know where A.I. in political campaigns is heading next? Look to consumer products.
