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TRUTH IN ADVERTISING
Advertising doesn’t just distort the truth, the lies told by adverts distort reality. “It is important to bear in mind that political campaigns are designed by the same people who sell toothpaste and cars.” – Noam Chomsky Similar projects on my subvertising page here.
FLAG SHAGGING
Not really my type of thing but I try not to kink shame people who are into flags. Stay safe out there! UPDATE: 28/08/24:
RARE BOOKS/MANUSCRIPTS
Due to a clerical error of some kind, three of my ‘books’ have been acquired by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. Get in the historical record you little bastards! If you’d like them for your own self you can order here.
SERCO BUS STOP AD
My Serco ad now in bus stops thanks to Special patrol Group. More on my subvertising page.
VITAMIN D3
They’ve only gone and put me in a proper art book. Right next to Robert Crumb too, AND I’m on page 69 which is objectively the funniest number in the alphabet. It’s called Vitamin D3 and is published by Phaidon.
SERCO
Serco’s failed Test-and-Trace system costs billions and reaches just 62% of contacts, compared to UK local authorities who, despite being denied access to central government data and given just £300 million in funding have managed to reach 97% of contacts.
NEW PATCHES
Turn any old piece of clothing into a grossly negligent corporation uniform. Available in my shop.
SAVE SCRAP WOOD
It’s true those old war propaganda posters do take on a new meaning during a pandemic. Prints in the shop.
2021 INTO THE THUNDERDOME
Brexit scale-model project I was mucking about with during lockdown this year, inspired by the apocalyptic diy tabletop game Gaslands. More photos below. PHOTOS SERCO ORBITAL WASTE DISPOSAL
2020
Last day in the studio before xmas so made this. Backdrop painting is borrowed off the internet, and the gravestone I carved into is a scale model originally made by Emma Rose-Dade for our Action Man: Battlefield Casualties films.
NEW T-SHIRTS
Available in my shop. 1st class and special delivery options available for pre-xmas last minute buying
AD NAUSEA – STICKER KIT
I made this Ad Nausea sticker kit for easily adding thoughts of existential dread to the inhabitants of public advertisements. Available here: www.spellingmistakescostlives.com/shop Based on my Ad Nausea project: www.spellingmistakescostlives.com/adnausea The thought bubbles are also available as a free download from that page.
SUPPORT LOCAL SHOPS
New stickers arrived from the printers today. Available here.
HSBC
I designed this poster as part of Brandalism’s new subvertising campaign targeting HSBC’s risible claims to be an ethical bank while investing in fossil fuels, arms companies, and laundering money for the world’s worst criminals. See below for more readable poster text. My design went up in Leeds, Sheffield and on the London underground but there’s a load of great posters by different artists in the campaign. Across 10 UK cities activists took over 250 billboards and bus stops with satirical HSBC ads. Thanks to everyone who installed work for this! More about the takeover and other posters in the campaign here: brandalism.ch/projects/hsbc/ More of my subvertising work here: www.spellingmistakescostlives.com/subvertising Poster text: “They call it crime. We call it business. For a bank that was founded to finance the illegal opium trade, we’ve certainly stayed true to our roots. We laundered hundreds of millions of pounds for the world’s largest and most violent drug cartels, moved money across borders for everyone from Al-Qaeda to ISIS, and helped countries like Iran, Sudan and North Korea bypass UN sanctions. Whether you need help evading taxes, laundering your drug profits, selling weapons to brutal dictators, or funding investment in the fossil fuels that will exterminate life on Earth, give us a call. HSBC The world’s criminal bank.”
THE MARKET FINDS A WAY
I made some new enamel badges based on the classic movie about health & safety and the dangers of deregulated free markets. Available from my shop.
NUCLEAR ESTATE AGENTS
Perfect for last-time buyers. If you lived here you’d be dead already.
LANDLORDS
A new poster inspired by a conversation with me mate Amy Smith who’s been organising with the London Renters Union. You can download a printable version of the poster from my subvertising page (for non-commercial use only)
SURRENDER
All the flags US astronauts planted on the moon are, by now, bleached white by the sun. In hundreds of millions of years, after every trace of civilisation has been wiped from the surface of the earth, these flags will remain on the moon as a final monument to human existence. That and, tragically, two copies of Richard Nixon’s autograph.
