Just sayin'....
Now, it could well be that there are super glues available today that I am unaware of that make it harder to get a poster off than the little trick I'm about to impart, but I'll guarantee that if there is, it isn't as cheap as this:Meet the street propagandist's best friend.
Yes, dear friends, it is a can of Pet Milk. Oh, any brand of condensed milk will do in a pinch, but I have a fondness in my heart for Pet. Many are the evil communist posters I put up with Pet Milk in my mis-spent youth, my Benedict Arnold period as I now call it. And fifteen years later, while cruising the University district in Columbus, Ohio with my present (and last) wife, I was able to point out some of them to Rosey; weathered, faded but still legible. "30 Hours Work for 40 Hours Pay! -- Worker's Action Movement" read one of them.
Here's how you do it.
Ingredients: One gallon zip lock bag. One clean cotton washcloth. (Or sponge.) One can of pet milk, poured into the bag as needed. (Remember to have several cans in the car. I remember one fine, soft night we went through hundreds of posters and a couple cases of Pet.) Also, if the modern cans still require it, the ever popular church key to open them.
OK, you put the Pet Milk and the cloth in the zip lock, and the zip lock in a purse, gym bag, whatever, but it needs to be slung over your shoulder and, if possible, attached to your belt so it doesn't go swinging -- very messy. Your partner (this always works best with two poster commandos -- one with the posters, the other with milk -- and at least one lookout) carries the posters individually rolled in a larger gym bag so they can be rapidly pulled without fumbling. (Once we had some monster posters to put up and we used a long baseball player's bat bag.)
Lookout gives the go ahead. You open the zip lock and pull out your soaked washcloth, as the commando with the poster whips it out and places it up against the surface to be postered, front side down. The wiper takes his soaked rag and saturates the back of the poster, making sure to completely cover it. The guy who has been holding the poster against the surface now reverses it, image side up and you both smooth it with your hands. The wiper then gives another coat of Pet Milk to the front, again making sure the entire surface is covered.
With practice it can be done in seconds.
You are now done, and you both walk away casually. Using boy-girl teams for this is not a bad idea, as they appear to be interested in each other rather than the appearance of a couple of manly men who, at first glance of a cop, are probably up to something.
Do not be furtive or act nervous or guilty. Casual. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
When this miraculous stuff dries, that poster will have to sandblasted off. Forget scraping. It will never come off to mere gentle persuasion and elbow grease, no matter how abrasive.
Pet Milk. Very dangerous stuff. Use it wisely.
