Just in time for the COP21 Climate Conference, an organization called Brandalism has hijacked over 600 outdoor ad spaces in the city, replacing them with climate change-related art … and what, at first glance, look like ordinary ads for brands like Total, Air France, Dow Chemicals, GDF Suez and Volkswagen.
The difference is, these ads reveal unpleasant truths.
All the targeted brands are corporate sponsors of COP21. (The art also appears in ad space owned by outdoor ad firm JC Decaux, itself an official sponsor.) The objective is to highlight the hypocrisy inherent in those companies associating themselves with an event that their actions suggest they don’t really care about.
The Volkswagen piece below, created by street artist Barnbrook, appropriates the look and feel of classic VW ads but reads, “We’re sorry that we got caught. Now that we’ve been caught, we’re trying to make you think we care about the environment. But we’re not the only ones. #redlines #D12 #ClimateGames”
Ha! Ad-wrenching would be a good term for this too. Love it!
Brilliant!
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/11/brandalism-fake-ads-paris/
Thank you, Brandalists for exposing the greenwashing behind the conference.