Parisians have found an ingenious way around the current ban on organizing publicly. They’re calling it called Brandalism — fake ads meant to send a message. These subversive pieces of art showed up across the city over the weekend, just in time for today’s kickoff of the COP21 climate talks.
The campaign, which aims to highlight the links between advertising, consumerism, fossil fuels, and climate change, is actually a collaboration between artists from all over the world—not just within France. Over 80 artists from 19 countries have contributed to the 600 fake advertisements, including big names such as Neta Harari, Jimmy Cauty, Banksy collaborator Paul Insect, Escif, and Kennard Phillips.
Each ad parodies a different corporate sponsor of the COP21 — from AirFrance to Dow Chemicals. Heads of state aren’t exempt, either: France’s Francois Hollande, Britain’s David Cameron, Germany’s Angela Merkel, Japan’s Shinzo Abi, and our very own Barack Obama are also featured.
“By sponsoring the climate talks, major polluters such as Air France and GDF-Suez-Engie can promote themselves as part of the solution—when actually they are part of the problem,” said Brandalism’s Joe Elan in a press release. “We are taking their spaces back because we want to challenge the role advertising plays in promoting unsustainable consumerism. Because the advertising industry force feeds our desires for products created from fossil fuels, they are intimately connected to causing climate change.”
The ads were put up on Vendredi Noir, France’s Black Friday, occupying advertising space owned by COP21 sponsor JC Decaux.
What does Brandalism hope will be the result of all this? Awareness, at the very least. As Brandalism’s Bill Posters said:
It’s now more important than ever to call out [multinationals’] lies and speak truth to power. We call on people to take to the streets during the COP21 to confront the fossil fuel industry. We cannot leave the climate talks in the hands of politicians and corporate lobbyists who created this mess in the first place.
