The latest trailer for “Becoming Led Zeppelin” contains an altered 1967 news photograph of Robert Plant that has been edited to hide a protest sign, LedZepNews has found.

The film’s full-length trailer released by its US distributor Sony Pictures Classics on December 19 includes a still photograph of Plant taken on August 10, 1967 which shows a sign that appears to read “Don’t plant it, smoke it”.

However, LedZepNews has found that the photograph in the film’s trailer has been altered to insert the sign. The person behind Plant was actually holding a different sign that read “Legalise pot”, a copy of the original photograph shows.

The filmmakers appear to have accidentally edited out the top of Plant’s hair while editing the photograph to change the protest sign seen behind him.

The altered photograph can be seen at the 14-second point of the full-length trailer embedded below:

The original, unaltered 1967 news photograph can be seen at this Getty Images link. The “don’t plant it, smoke it” sign which was added into the photograph can be seen at this Getty Images link.

It’s possible that the edit to the image in the new trailer was made to remove the overt drug reference in the hope of avoiding a more adult classification for the film or its trailer.

A sign that read “Don’t plant it, smoke it” was present in the 1967 protest, other news photographs from that day show. It appears the filmmakers edited two photographs together to insert the sign behind Plant.

A 2023 article published by the Shropshire Star reported that Plant attended Wednesbury Magistrates Court not for a drug charge as the protest signs suggested, but for a charge of careless driving.

Plant pleaded not guilty to careless driving and carried out his own defence in court, the newspaper reported.

The emergence of the alteration to the photograph of Plant follows the news that the filmmakers edited news footage shot at the Fillmore West in January 1969 to insert a Led Zeppelin ticket and poster to make it appear to show crowds at a Led Zeppelin concert.

LedZepNews previously found that audio of John Bonham heard in a previous trailer for the film in which he seemingly described the band’s first rehearsal as “stunning” was actually created by editing in clips of Bonham describing fans’ reactions to a 1965 performance by The Beatles.

Follow Led Zeppelin News on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date on news as it happens. You can also sign up to our email for a digest of the latest news sent to your inbox. LedZepNews uses paid Amazon referral links to earn commissions to cover its costs.