Overview

Hollyboob refers to a prank committed in Hollywood, California, where several social media influencers allegedly altered the Hollywood sign to read "Hollyboob." According to Julia Rose, who reportedly orchestrated the stunt, for breast cancer awareness and a protest against Instagram censorship. Six were arrested in connection with the stunt.

Background

On February 1st, 2021, social media influencer and Shagmag founder Julia Rose tweeted ^[1] a picture of herself raising two middle fingers in front of the altered Hollywood sing. She captioned the image, "guys…. I finally fixed the Hollywood Sign." The post received more than 10,000 likes and 400 retweets in less than one week (shown below).

Developments

Arrest

That day, Los Angeles Police arrested six people connected with the alteration. According to the L.A. Times, five men and one woman were arrested for trespassing and were released with a misdemeanor citation.^[2]

On February 2nd, Rose published a video of herself being arrested at the sign. The post received more than 383,000 reactions, 2,900 comments and 2,100 shares (shown below).

Juia Rose Statement

Julia Rose told the Daily Mail^[3] that stunt was, in part, a protest against Instagram, who recently banned her account. She said, "This was to show them that I still have a voice. My business for Shagmag with almost one million followers also got disabled this year due to nudity, but I'm not doing anything more than what Playboy is doing so I think they're discriminating against my accounts."

Online Reaction

The stunt sparked numerous conversations online. On February 1st, Redditor 318neb posted a photo of the sign in the /r/LosAngeles^[4] subreddit. The post received more than 2,400 points (97% upvoted) and 100 comments in less than one week. The following day, Redditor TheMadHat shared the photo in the /r/nottheonline^[5] subreddit, where it received more than 27,000 points (97% upvoted) and 565 comments in less than 24 hours. On February 3rd, a thread about the arrest posted by Redditor tyrex93 received more than 22,000 points (88% upvoted) and 965 comments in the /r/cringetopia^[6] subreddit.

People also talked about the prank on Twitter. On February 1st, YouTuber Vsauce tweeted^[7] photos of the sign with the caption, "HOLLYBOOB? Happening right now." The post received more than 83,000 likes and 6,000 retweets (shown below, left). The following day, Twitter^[8] user @kayaladewbs tweeted, "hollyweed walked so that hollyboob could run." The tweet received more than 194,000 likes and 23,000 retweets in less than one week (shown below, right).

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the story, including the LA Times,^[1] the Daily Mail,^[3] the New York Post,^[9] the New York Times^[10] and more.

Search Interest

External References