The 'Black and Blue' Billboard Campaign: When Sexism Met Album Promotion

In 1976, the Rolling Stones unleashed one of rock’s most infamous ad campaigns for their album Black and Blue. Billboards showed a model named Anita Russell tied up and bruised, with the tagline: “I’m ‘Black and Blue’ from the Rolling Stones – and I love it.” The image played directly on the album’s title, turning a phrase about bruises into a provocative mix of violence and sexual submission.

The backlash was immediate. Feminist groups like the National Organization for Women (NOW) protested, and the ads were eventually pulled from major cities. The Stones defended it as “a joke,” but critics saw it as a cheap exploitation of domestic violence imagery. The album itself had no thematic connection to the campaign — it was just a blunt way to link the title to shock value. The controversy ended up overshadowing the music, but it certainly got people talking.