Protestors target Shell Festival with subverted ad campaign
By James Herring on Saturday, June 16, 2018
Subverted posters have appeared in bus stop advertising panels ahead of Shell’s Make The Future festival, which features a number of high profile pop stars.
Members of the ‘subvertising’ group, Brandalism, have inserted subverted Shell adverts in JC Decaux and Clear Channel sites in London, Leeds, Oxford and Bristol to criticise the advertising campaign by oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell.
Some of the artworks feature images of pop stars due to appear at the festival (including Pixie Lott and Jennifer Hudson) with the messages “Don’t fall for Pop Star PR.”
The ads were not paid for but ‘self-installed’.
The artworks also call-out Shell for fossil fuel extraction and lobbying against climate legislation.
A member of the group, Janette Watkins, 23 from London said: “Each year, Shell spends millions trying to convince us that it’s a progressive, ethical company. But we’re not buying it. The company uses pop stars and advertising campaigns to appeal to millennials – but we know their real business is wrecking the climate. Young people won’t be fooled by their latest slick pr campaign.”
The group has created a spoof Facebook event page and promises a series of creative and disruptive actions during the four days of the festival.
The series of ads, created by the artists Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives, Bill Posters, Billy Fisher, Billy Bindley & Tommy Gooch and Phire.
It’s not the first time the group have used subversive outdoor ads to attract attention.
In November 2015 more than 600 artworks critiquing corporate sponsors of the UN summit on climate change were installed in advertising spaces across Paris.
Prominent corporate sponsors of the talks were targeted by the posters, which say that they are “part of the problem”.
Including Air France.
and VW
Spotted in Campaign