“Brandalism is a revolt against corporate control of the visual realm.”

~ www.brandalism.org.uk

40 street artists. 10 cities. 365 ad takeovers. 2 days.

That’s what it took for the two year old organisation to complete its latest project in May 2014.

All over the UK, including in London, Liverpool, Oxford and Edinburgh, members of the Brandalism project hijacked advertising space guerilla-style, replacing posters that “force-feed us with images and messages to keep us insecure, unhappy, and shopping” with images especially created by international street artists.

Purposefully unsigned, the images explored themes such as the ecological damage of consumerism, debt, gender stereotypes and the disaster of finance capitalism.

On their website, the words of Paul Mazur, a leading Wall Street banker, are quoted to describe the culture Brandalism is revolting against:

“We must shift America from a needs—to a desires—culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. […] Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.”

If people like the idea, Brandalism.org.uk are happy for anybody to copycat. They even have an instruction manual available on their website explaining how to open the bus advertisement spaces.

Watch this video and keep an eye out for their next project.

Love elephant and want to go steady?

Sign up for our (curated) daily and weekly newsletters!

Editor: Travis May

Photo: YouTube screenshot