Manchester man draws penises around potholes so the city will fix them

Frustrated by the number of potholes pockmarking his city streets, an anonymous man recently discovered a way to get the city to pay attention: penises. The man has been using industrial chalk to draw penises around each pothole, claiming the eyesores expedite the filling process, BBC reports.

“[The potholes] don’t get filled. They’ll be there for months,” the artist, who calls himself Wanksy, told BBC’s Newsbeat. “Suddenly you draw something amusing around it, everyone sees it, and it either gets reported or fixed.”

The town council, unsurprisingly, says the work is both unnecessary and obscene, claiming a penis frame will not get a pothole fixed any faster than usual. But the potholes are nonetheless getting filled:

The artist notes the drawings will fade away in “a week or two,” so the vandalism isn’t permanent — it’s just a temporary, creative way of getting something done.