Giant inflatable pig across from LAPD headquarters draws attention [Updated]

 
It wasn't heralding a Pink Floyd concert, and it wasn't a gimmick to market smoked sausage.

It wasn't even a rogue protest against the Los Angeles Police Department.

A giant inflatable pig floating across the street from the LAPD headquarters Wednesday was part of a Verizon commercial being filmed at the L.A. Times' Spring Street corporate offices. Times corporate officials could not comment on the pig but Times reporters independently verified the identity of the sponsor.

That didn't stop bewildered onlookers from the downtown courthouse to the Ronald Reagan State Office Building from drawing their own conclusions about the smiling porker.

Some thought it was a creative way to make an editorial statement. It wasn't.

Others were put off by what they said was the pejorative symbolism of a flying pig reflected off the LAPD building.  Which demonstrates that art is indeed interpreted by the beholder.

[Updated at 10 a.m. Thursday: Portions of this post have been rewritten and reedited.]

-- Andrew Blankstein

Photos: Top, Rong-Gong Lin II / Los Angeles Times;  bottom, Michelle Maltais / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Eric]

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[Alex]

Yeah, when Pigs fly! can't be used anymore in Los Angeles

[PadrePete]

BEAUTIFUL... PERFECT, "Others were put off by what they said was the pejorative symbolism of a flying pig..."
Next stop... THE GROUND ZERO MOSQUE BUILDING!

[Thanatossassin]

Verizon probably won't discover the irony of a corporation flying a pig, and that's very irritating. Hopefully Roger Waters has some trademark he can smack in their faces.

[BIG RICK]

IT RESEMBLES SOME OF OUR CITY GOVERNMENT AND THEIR HIGH SALARIES AND PENSIONS. ?

[3825You]

The New State Emblem.

[hijk]

lol people project so much its embarrassing

[Newman]

Mmmmm... Bacon.....