11 Times The Hollywood Sign Was Hijacked

HOLLYWOOD, CA — If you ask anybody anywhere in the world to name Los Angeles' most famous landmark, chances are they'll say the Hollywood Sign. It's that notoriety — and the prominence of its 45-foot letters perched high above the city — that makes it an attractive target for activists, vandals, advertisers and politicians alike.

Designated as a historic cultural monument by the city in 1973, the sign got its start in 1923 as a billboard for the Hollywoodland subdivision below. It was rebuilt in 1978 after years of neglect and has since gone through several repairs.

• Read more: Hollywood Sign At 100: A History Of The Icon's First Century

Though the sign was edited to spell out "Hollywood" — and not "Hollywoodland" — in 1949, those two words haven't been the only two that have graced the top of Mt. Lee.

Here are 11 of the many times the sign has been hijacked through rewording and other modifications:

Crypto Crew's Viral Moment

Most recently, six people were arrested in September 2025 after being caught hanging a banner on the sign's "O."

The suspects recorded their journey for social media as part of a stunt to advertise a cryptocurrency platform. The Los Angeles Police Department responded in kind, offering its own Instagram video set to the tune of The Clash's "I Fought the Law."

• Read more about the crew's arrest

'HOLLYWeeD'

Perhaps the most famous modification in recent memory came in 2017, when a man scaled the sign and placed black tarps on the sign's final two "O's" to spell out "HOLLYWeeD." It came less than two months after California voters approved the legalization of recreational cannabis.

The man wasn't the first to come up with that edit.

The sign was similarly changed exactly 41 years earlier by Danny Finegood in recognition of the state's 1976 reduction in penalty for possession of marijuana from a felony to a misdemeanor.

Finegood and his friends again edited the sign to read "Holywood" for Easter that same year and "Ollywood" 11 years later "to protest the hero worship of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North during the Iran-Contra hearings," according to Finegood's obituary published in the Los Angeles Times, which focuses on his prominent pranks.

He punctuated his sign-modifying career in 1990 when he draped plastic sheets over the sign to form "Oil War" as a political statement against the Persian Gulf War.

“An artist’s role throughout history has been to create representations of the culture he exists in. By hanging four relatively small pieces of fabric on the landmark, we were able to change people’s perception of the Hollywood Sign,” Finegood and his friends wrote in a 1983 letter to the Times.

'HOLLYBOOB'

Finegold expressed frustration with his modifications being labeled vandalism, rather than art and activism. Others have felt similarly misunderstood.

Six people were arrested in 2021 after attaching tarps to the sign to change the letters "W" and "D" to spell out "Hollyboob." And they told police it was not a childish joke, but an alteration meant to raise awareness of breast cancer.

The LAPD, however, saw things differently.

"Los Angeles landmarks are precious to those of us and this was way uncool (not to mention the terrain is quite steep & dangerous)," Capt. Steve Lurie wrote on social media after the arrest.

Let There Be Light

The Hollywood Sign — in its original "Hollywoodland" form — debuted with a flash in 1973: It was originally lit up by 3,700 light bulbs.

While that didn't last long, light shows and other illumination have been an occasional feature over the sign's first century.

In 1984, the sign was lit up between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. during the Olympic Games being held in the city, the Los Angeles Times reported.

It wore lights and laser beams in 1999 in celebration of the new millennium.

In 2022, the sign was lit up with complex projections for the BET Awards.

Illumination almost became a regular feature of the landmark.

On his last day on the job in 2022, outgoing mayor Eric Garcetti ordered the creation of a program that would allow the sign to be illuminated on a more regular basis. Mayor Karen Bass quickly reversed course out of concerns about the plan's legality.

'Rams House'

Tinstletown became the Ram's town after the team won Super Bowl LVI in 2022.

The sign was temporarily reworked to read "Rams House" in honor of the team that made Los Angeles a Super Bowl Champion again for the first time in almost 40 years.