MediaBuyerPlanner: Lionsgate, an independent film distributor, will be using anti-war billboards in New York and Los Angeles to promote its new documentary on John Lennon, Reuters reports (via Yahoo).

The documentary, titled The U.S. vs. John Lennon, will debut in both cities on September 15. The film discusses Lennon and his life as a musician and anti-war activist, and how the government interacted with Lennon's views. The billboards are replicated from posters that both John Lennon and Yoko Ono created in 1969 and posted in 11 cities as a protest to the Vietnam War.

Filmmakers David Leaf and John Scheinfeld, and Lionsgate marketing executives met with Ono in preparing for the campaign. "The smartest thing we could do would be to borrow their ideas directly for the campaign," says Tim Palen, co-president of theatrical marketing for Lionsgate. "Even though it's white on black and most people see it as generic, the brilliance is in its simplicity, and we wanted it to be as exact as possible in the details."

The New York billboard will be unveiled on Wednesday on Seventh Avenue at 10th Street in the West Village. In Los Angeles, the billboard will debut on August 15 on the Sunset Boulevard near Cory Avenue in West Hollywood, according to the article.