Hope everyone’s having a new year and a very January.
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BMW / TOYOTA GREENWASH CAMPAIGN
I designed this poster for a new Brandalism, Subvertisers International and XR Belgium takeover of 400 ad spaces in towns and cities across Europe targeting car advertising, polluting SUVs, and in particular Toyota and BMW.
BMW and Toyota push their ‘green’ credentials in their advertising while simultaneously lobbying governments to delay and limit policies to end the sale of new fossil fuel cars.
There were 11 other artists involved in the campaign including some good friends @shelkadelic, @buyanewsoul, @mattbonner.uk and @mernywernz. More images and details of the other artists works in this campaign can be found on the Brandalism website.
My poster was inspired by the fact that BMW was one of the car manufacturers who installed emissions test cheating devices in thousands of their vehicles, which meant they released far more toxic fumes than regulators and consumers believed. They also colluded with VW and Daimler in an “emissions cartel” to curb the use of emissions cleaning technology.
More of my previous subvertising work on my website.
Above: French version of the poster
HE WON’T SAVE THIS ONE EITHER
Drew the above for an update of my commemorative coin for the coronation and decided to make this into a limited edition signed print too, which you can order from my website shop
Coins won’t be ready until March but you can preorder them here. (Previous unsaved monarch coin shown here on the left)
HELL BUS TOUR
I’m hoping to bring the Hell Bus on tour around universities in England and Wales from late Feb through March, alongside the Ad Free Cities and Switch It campaigns (who are also very kindly organising the logistics and funding for the tour). But we’re having some trouble getting invites from universities. If you work at a university or a student union and can help us officially get the bus onto your campus please reply to this email and let me know!
PREPARE FOR VALENTINES DAY / APOCALYPSE
I designed this Valentines Day card to monetise your doomed romance. You can order them here.
I also recently got these ‘It Has to Get Worse Before it Gets Worse’ t-shirts made up, they’re 6 colour screenprints and come with Spelling Mistakes tags sewn in the collar. Available here.
SUPPORT THE NURSES STRIKE
I made the above poster in support of the nurses strike which is being printed and sold by If Not Now Digital with all profits going to the RCN strike fund.
Also, I mentioned it before but I made the poster on the left to connect all the struggles of different professions fighting for better pay and conditions. You can download this one for free from my website.
And below you can see a photo of both posters which somehow ended up in bus stops in London.
NEOLIBERALISM
Managed democracy, brought to you by neoliberalism.
One of the primary functions of neoliberalism is to remove economic policy from the democratic sphere, so it’s no longer possible to vote for anything except neoliberal economic policy. This is, now we are faced with a choice between Starmer & Sunak, “the triumph of centrism” according to George Osborne. A triumph because all other options are defeated and removed from voter reach.
Both major parties in the UK agree on the fundamentals of how to run the economy, (privatisation & outsourcing, austerity, marketisation, anti-union legislation etc), they just disagree on some smaller points of detail such as which party’s donors should get the lucrative NHS contracts.
The Wikipedia definition for a managed democracy states that “such hybrid regimes are legitimized by elections that are free and fair, but do not change the state’s policies, motives, and goals.” How is that not a description of this country, or the US and many other major countries for that matter? Red or blue, things carry on much the same. Same neoliberal economics, same foreign policy, same military posturing, same allies, same enemies, same approach to business and workers.
One thing the red/blue divide is very good for is getting people to support policies they would absolutely loathe if suggested by the other party. So for the last few weeks I’ve had Labour supporters explain to me that Wes Streeting will only *temporarily privatise* the NHS. And they’re ok with that. They’re not even interested in any details on when the temporary privatisation is supposed to stop. It’s fine because “we have to win”. But what are you winning? At least when the Tories are in charge you don’t have to make excuses for their terrible policies.
For the time being at least, there is little that can be achieved through electoral politics, the real fight is in unionising your workplace, organising among renters, and building community power, taking direct action on climate change, and holding the bastards who govern us, red, white or blue, to account for their corruption & bigotry, whether they’re on “your side” or not.
Que se vayan todos / They all must go
POSTER SALE!
While tidying my studio this week I found a chunk of old Pocket Money Loans posters. I sold these primarily during my installation at Dismaland and they’re one of the main reasons I was able to start renting an actual studio rather than working out of the corner of my bedroom. So while I’m very fond of them I would like to get rid of them too cos they’re taking up space that could be filled with new daft things.
So I’m doing a (February?) sale until this time next month, you can have any of these A3 posters for £5 each:
SUNAK SEAT BELT
READING / WATCHING
Thought I’d add a little section of what I’ve been reading, listening to and/or watching over the last month or so in case its of interest.
Non-Fiction Book
The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World – Vincent Bevins
Utterly brilliant, chilling and infuriating. It’s made me rethink the Cold War less as a power struggle between great powers, and more of a reaction by the West to decolonisation; an effort to crush any democratic movement that threatened the West’s commercial and imperial interests in newly liberated nations.
Fiction Book
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists – Robert Tressell
A bleak but very funny story about poverty, work and capitalism that feels more relevant now than it would have in many of the decades since it was written in 1914
Audiobook
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage Book – Alfred Lansing
I didn’t know much about this failed expedition to Antarctica but the story of how this crew survived and escaped the most inhospitable place on Earth after having their ship crushed and sunk by ice thousands of miles from civilisation is absolutely staggering.
As for film and telly, Endurance got me obsessing about Arctic and Antarctic voyages so I watched the great documentary Encounters at the End of the World by Werner Herzog. Also I’m not much into Star Wars but I loved Andor which I chose to view as the Irish War of Independence in Space. Made me wonder if it’s a coincidence the Rebel Alliance abbreviates to ‘the RA’, (is the full name: ‘Intergalactic Rebel Alliance’?)
Anyway enough of all that!
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Eternal thanks to anyone who’s ever backed my work on Patreon or through the shop!
And thanks for reading!
