A viral anti-Karen Bass campaign that exploded across social media has now spilled directly into the streets of downtown Los Angeles, turning the city’s mayoral race into a full-scale political spectacle.
On Tuesday, two massive billboard trucks circled Los Angeles City Hall for hours displaying the now-famous slogan: “Spencer, take out the trash.” The message, tied to media personality and mayoral hopeful Spencer Pratt, has rapidly evolved into one of the most recognizable political catchphrases currently spreading online in California politics.
The slogan carries a deliberate double meaning. Supporters have tied it to the Spanish word “basura,” meaning “trash,” while using it as a direct attack on Mayor Karen Bass and her administration. The campaign behind the phrase portrays City Hall as dysfunctional, corrupt, and incapable of handling Los Angeles’ spiraling problems involving homelessness, crime, public disorder, and deteriorating city services.
The trucks rolled through downtown streets and around government buildings while blasting graphics and visuals connected to the viral online campaign that has already generated millions of views across TikTok, Instagram, and X. The imagery has been impossible to ignore.
The campaign’s videos lean heavily into modern internet-style political warfare. Fast-cut editing, AI-generated visuals, dystopian cityscapes, and aggressive anti-establishment messaging dominate the content. Several clips depict Los Angeles as a collapsing urban nightmare consumed by graffiti, overflowing trash, tent encampments, and rising disorder, while presenting Pratt as an outsider figure promising to “clean up” the city.
The strategy appears to be working. What initially looked like another celebrity flirtation with politics has quickly transformed into something much larger. Pratt, long known primarily for reality television fame, has suddenly become one of the most talked-about political names in Los Angeles despite not fitting the mold of a traditional candidate.
Much of the momentum behind the campaign centers on frustration over homelessness spending. Pratt has repeatedly attacked what he calls Los Angeles’ “homeless industrial complex,” arguing that taxpayers have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into programs that have produced little visible improvement on the streets. Encampments remain widespread across large portions of the city, and public anger over safety, sanitation, and quality-of-life issues continues growing.
The billboard stunt amplified those frustrations directly in front of the city’s political leadership. By physically circling City Hall with giant moving advertisements, organizers ensured the campaign would dominate both social media feeds and local political conversation simultaneously.
At the same time, Pratt attempted to create some distance between himself and the operation. He told The New York Post on Tuesday that the ads were not officially linked to his campaign. Whether voters believe that distinction may not matter much given how closely the messaging aligns with his public attacks on Bass and City Hall leadership.
