01 Jul 2024
Press contact: Kit Speedwell, 07547 320072, brandalismproject@gmail.com Hard-hitting billboard hacks surrounding the Wimbledon tennis tournament see a fresh round of pressure over its banking partner’s financing of the fossil fuel and weapons industries. More than 300 commercial billboard, tube and bus shelter ads near the tournament have been replaced with artworks strongly criticising the bank’s financial support to the arms trade and companies worsening climate breakdown, in a guerrilla ad takeover by anonymous art collective Brandalism. One Barclays-branded artwork shows…
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15 May 2024
Press contact: Tona Merriman, +447547320072, brandalism.project@gmail.com Oil giant Shell’s tobacco-style PR tactics have been targeted in a guerrilla billboarding action across London, Manchester and other core UK cities in the run up to Shell’s AGM in London. In the clandestine operation, Brandalism activists replaced more than 200 commercial adverts on billboards, bus stops and tube carriages with satirical artworks protesting Shell’s efforts to “fast track the apocalypse”, as shareholders prepare to vote on Shell’s weak climate strategy. Activists and artists…
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25 Jul 2024
Activists have blasted Toyota’s sponsorship of the upcoming Olympic Games with more than 100 ad-hacks in prominent locations in Paris and five other major French cities. The guerilla artworks highlight the automaker’s greenhouse gas emissions, which are higher than many fossil fuel companies, and criticise the Olympic organising committee for accepting sponsorship from major polluters.
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23 Apr 2024
Brandalism crews have taken over ad-spaces across Europe this week with spoof ads demanding an end to airline advertising over the outsized climate impacts of aviation. Adverts in over 30 towns and cities, including Amsterdam, Berlin, Lisbon, Geneva, Paris and London have been replaced or modified to highlight the role of advertising in the growing emissions from airlines. The ad-hack actions are part of wider movement to pressure local legislators to ban advertising and sponsorships by airlines and airports, highlighting…
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27 Nov 2023
‘ZAP’ is french for Zone Anti-Publicité / Anti-Advertising Zone. It is two weeks of affinity groups actions against Black Friday consumerism and the advertising industry.
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07 Jul 2023
Brandalism crews have hijacked advertising spaces in Wimbledon, south London, to protest the tennis tournament’s endorsement of Barclays via a lucrative new sponsorship deal. As the tennis tournament celebrated its dubious “Environment Day”, activists replaced corporate ads on streets surrounding the tournament with satirical artworks stating: “Barclays sponsors Wimbledon and Fossil Fuels”. The spoof ad, by artist Klarissa Katz, shows Barclays shaking hands with death – dressed up as a corporate executive at Shell. Barclays is one of the world’…
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22 Sep 2022
In a massive coordinated subvertising action across the UK, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and France, anonymous Brandalism crews hijacked over 500 corporate advertising spaces, replacing adverts with satirical artworks denouncing the role of aviation industry advertising in the climate crisis. Tona Merriman from Brandalism said: “The allure and glamour of high carbon lifestyles such as frequent flying has been purposefully crafted by the advertising industry and shows no signs of relenting – despite one of the hottest summers on…
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26 Jul 2022
International week of action against aviation ads:Saturday 10th – Saturday 17th September 2022 Join the Subvertisers International network and Brandalism in September 2022 to stand up against airline and airport advertising, as Europe burns under an unprecedented heatwave and our politicians, corporations and the advertising agencies that hustle for fossil fuels continue to act like nothing is happening. TAKE ACTION From 10th – 17th September 2022, citizens, climate justice groups, activists and artists around Europe will be taking action to call for a…
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23 May 2022
An unauthorised poster campaign from the ‘Brandalism’ network appeared in bus stop and billboard advertising spaces in Aberdeen on 22 May 2022. The posters featuring BP and Shell, installed without permission, coincide with Shell’s upcoming AGM in London and Offshore Energy UK’s conference on North Sea Transition Deal in Aberdeen. The billboards take aim at the exploitation of workers and the climate by BP and Shell while making millions in profits through continued fossil fuel production. 75% of offshore workers…
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23 Oct 2021
23 October 2021 The murky climate policies of NatWest bank have been laid bare in a guerrilla billboard campaign across 20 UK cities this week. Ad spaces have been taken over with satirical NatWest ads spotlighting questionable loopholes in the bank’s climate policy. The policy allegedly allows NatWest to continue financing fossil fuel companies as long as they proclaim to ‘offset’ their carbon emissions. While the bank has been getting a reputation boost over its green credentials as one of…
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12 Oct 2021
In France, Belgium and across the UK, an ad hack campaign has targeted leading advertising agencies including Ogilvy, MediaCom and VCCP over their role in the climate crisis. Over 200 billboard and bus stop posters installed without permission in over 20 towns and cities link the advertising agencies with their high carbon clients such as Shell, BP, Jaguar Land Rover and British Airways. The action was part of four days of grassroots actions to protest fossil advertising and sponsorships, under…
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30 Sep 2021
A 17 year-old snorkel instructor who lives by the Great Barrier Reef in Australia has inspired a guerilla art campaign against HSBC bank in Britain this week. Following Ava’s challenge to HSBC over their “blatant greenwash”, Brandalism partnered up with Fossil Free London to create a guerilla art campaign of spoof HSBC adverts on billboards and bus stops in London, Brighton and Bristol. For press enquiries contact Tona Merriman, +44 7440 703 870 brandalism[at]riseup.net Shearer, who is from Port Douglas, Queensland…
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21 Sep 2021
Activists have hijacked ad spaces in 20 UK towns and cities to highlight Barclays’ continued funding of fossil fuels and deforestation, in the run up to COP26 As Barclays prepares to announce a new climate policy, more than 200 mock adverts have been installed at billboards and bus stops across the UK. The spoof ads spotlight Barclays’ role in financing climate breakdown, adding to growing public pressure for big banks to clean up their act. Dubbed ‘the dirtiest bank in…
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11 May 2021
Liverpool has seen its billboards and bus stops ‘hacked’ by activists over the weekend, in a campaign to expose Liverpool sponsor Standard Chartered for its fossil fuel links. Over 50 posters and billboards have appeared across the city, critiquing the the bank’s continued financing of destructive fossil fuel projects in South-East Asia. Standard Chartered is a UK bank that’s little known in its home country. Most of its customers are in South-East Asia, where it operates large numbers of retail…
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14 Apr 2021
Satirical HSBC posters have again appeared across billboard and bus stop advertising spaces in Britain critiquing HSBC’s heavy financing of fossil fuel projects around the world. Around 100 posters appeared in six (currently undisclosed) English cities. A poster artwork by Darren Cullen reads: “Some crisis are so urgent they require immediate action, like when we froze the bank accounts of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. But for other crisis, like catastrophic global warming, our shareholders require a slower more relaxed…
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05 Nov 2020
Dozens of anonymous installation teams in 15 British cities have installed a range of HSBC poster artworks in a ‘right of reply’ to the bank’s recent ad campaign. The artworks highlight the things we don’t see in HSBC’s official adverts: such as the £67 billion worth of investments in fossil fuel projects it has invested since 2016. This includes financing for fracked gas, oil drilling resulting in deforestation and gas extraction projects which has led to community displacement and human…
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05 Sep 2020
A wave of parody car adverts have appeared on billboards and bus stop in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Leeds and London – as pressure grows on the car industry advertising. Press Release: 100 billboards used in anti-car protest 5th September 2020 Contact: Peter Marcuse / brandalism[@]riseup.net / 0044 74385 10447 Web-ready images can be downloaded from here. Environmental groups from the ‘Brandalism’ network have installed over 100 parody car advert posters on billboard and bus stop advertising spaces…
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24 Feb 2018
Hope to Nope: Design Museum exhibition to examine contemporary political protest The Design Museum in London has announced details of its forthcoming exhibition Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18. The exhibition will examine the political graphic design of the past decade through artefacts ranging from traditional posters and banners to the rise of digital media and social networks that have extended the reach and changed the nature of protest. Brandalism will be exhibiting a selection of art works for…
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28 Jan 2018
One of our favourite illustrators and animators Steve Cutts shows the ‘rat race’ for what it really is. Hold onto your whiskers folks, this is dope… www.stevecutts.com @Steve_Cutts
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27 Jan 2018
– ‘How To Survive A Brandalism Attack’ – Ex Google & Apple Lawyers Publish Legal Advice For Corporations Words by Bill Posters. Intro On the 1st of January 2015, a curious legal paper appeared in Volume 10 of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice entitled ‘Brandalism & Subvertising – Hoisting Brands with their own petard?’ (what this actually means we will get to later). Within its pages, two lawyers – one ex-Google, one ex-Apple had taken the time…
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27 Jan 2018
Advertising Shits In Your Head – Book Review Below is one of the most intriguing, critical reviews of Dog Section Press’ Advertising Shits In Your Head, the recent underground (only 1000 copies printed) publication on the emerging subvertising movement. You can read the words from Graffiti Review below, pulled from their original article entitled ‘Changing The Urban Wallpaper’ which as published in January 2018. Hopefully their analysis of subvertising and the socio-political aspects attached to the practice will inspire…
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09 Jan 2018
Collisions Our good friend Jordan Seiler has released his eagerly anticipated zine that delves into a selection of his international interventions that form a solid global survey of his ‘Collisions’ series. Here are some words from Jordan about a deeply personal project which is both political and artistic in its subversive nature followed by one of the zine’s written pieces by Thomas Dekeyser. Collisions – A series ‘One of my ongoing personal projects these past few years has been…
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10 Dec 2017
Enjoy a short roundup of some of our previous interventions, actions and projects. Here’s to more #Brandalism in 2018 and beyond. #Advertisingshitsinyourhead
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26 Nov 2017
How To Turn A Lightbulb Into A Paint Bomb Epos257 is one of the Czech Republic’s most loved urban interventionists. During the Czech national elections Epos and graffiti writers from across Prague joined forces to create Posse 228 – a guerilla art group that went on to wage war (literally) against the political propoganda that smothered the city on billboards prior to the election. The video below outlines their demands, before they infiltrate the city and ‘shoot’ the…
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02 Nov 2017
Bill Posters Keynote @ ‘Guardians of the Earth’ Film Premiere Venue: Gartenbaukino, Vienna, Austria 15th Nov 19:30pm Tickets: here After 21 years of continuous failure of UN Climate negotiations, delegates from 195 countries, 20,000 worldwide negotiators gather on a military-protected private airport in the north of Paris together for one last attempt to save the earth. Behind closed doors, the delegates have to agree on the first global agreement against climate change. This will determine our life for…
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14 Jul 2017
Ad Hacking On The Underground If you’ve travelled on the London Underground over the last year or so, you may have noticed some unusual advertising signs courtesy of Special Patrol Group and friends. Some have been subvertisements for Banksy’s Dismaland, created in the same visual language as Transport For London’s advertisements however these served a different purpose entirely, created in protest (for many valid reasons) against the taxpayer-subsidised DSEI arms fair in London. Revolt Design killed it (metaphorically) with…
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26 Jun 2017
‘Cultural Hijack; the poetics of resistance and the politics of space’ Architectural Institute in Prague 24th June 2017 – 9th September 2017 Brandalism have been invited to exhibit works alongside some of the world’s most influential interventionist artists at the Architectural Institute in Prague, Czech Republic. Cultural Hijack explores the role of activist art and public intervention as practices of resistance across the landscapes of contemporary crisis. Combining exhibition and live interventions throughout the city, Cultural Hijack brings together international…
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04 Jun 2017
Fear and uncertainty seem to have settled into our societies, not only among citizens, but also political leaders and transnational corporations who see their capitals and centres of power stagger in the face of the combined effects of slowing global economic growth, imminent energy decline and increasing climate chaos. In this context, we are witnessing a multitude of responses, with three approaches that stand out. The first response attempts to regain control and security through new forms of authoritarianism…
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17 Apr 2017
Towards a Global Subvertising Movement – Brandalism & Friends launch the Subvertisers International (SI) Over the course of the last year Brandalism has been working alongside friends, artists, collectives, NGOs and activists to create a new international network of subvertisers. We are pleased to announce that the Subvertisers International (SI) launched in March 2017 with a global week of coordinated art activism entitled #SubvertThecity. As a result, the SI’s public ‘Call To Action’ saw over 500 corporate advertising panels…
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24 Mar 2017
Launching: 22nd March 2017 #SubvertTheCity
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