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CHATGPT SUICIDE MACHINE

New anti-chatbot ad that has started appearing on the London transport network. LLM chatbots like ChatGPT have been responsible for dozens of confirmed suicides, murders and serious mental health crises, particularly involving children and young people. Any product that is this dangerous to young people would normally be nowhere near a classroom. And would likely be banned outright. But thanks to the cult-like AI-hype that has consumed the brains of our government and corporate leaders, they only want more integration of these products into education, not less. If you’d like to print a copy or two of this poster you can download the file below:

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MAKE AMAZON PAY

New poster I made as part of Brandalism’s anti-Amazon Black Friday that went up over the last few days in support of the Make Amazon Pay campaign. I designed the poster at the last minute while I was in Nigeria which is why none of it is painted. Massive thanks to Brandalism for organising the campaign and the install crews for getting them out there! Check out the other artists on Brandalism’s page, Michelle Tylicki aka @shelkadelic did a great one which I’ve posted below.

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THIS IS THE NIGER DELTA

Went subvertising for the first time in Nigeria yesterday evening, along with Friday Nbani of Lekeh Development Foundation and with the help of some local lads we got two billboards up on disused billboard spaces in Ogoniland We actually got caught by a government official halfway through, who turned up with a squad of tough guys on motorbikes, and it got quite heated, but after a discussion in which a sum of money was mentioned, he allowed his tough guys to assist us in finishing our work.

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AI OVERVIEW

Small addition to a Google AI Overview advert featuring some genuine responses that have been given by this ‘service’. “AI” is a problem looking for a solution it can make more complicated. Nobody wants this stuff inserted into every crevice of their digital lives. LLMs have some limited use cases sure, but no “inevitable” revolutionary technology in history has required this level of foisting on the public. It’s very reminiscent of Meta’s long-running ad campaign for its multi-billion dollar VR Metaverse, which would fantasise about ways in which it might be useful or popular, one day! If it was that useful I would be using it, and big tech wouldn’t feel the need to shove it down my throat and hit me over the head with their pipe dreams about how these products could one day be useful and even profitable.

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LABOUR AUSTERITY

Put this up last Friday with the help of @olstar73 at the very end of our billboard subvertising workshop after everyone had gone home. I ran out of the blue backed paper so printed most of this on regular paper which then started to disintegrate when it got wet, leading to this even more horrifying Starmer visage. A few days later the billboard was demolished, as had been scheduled, but I got a few photos of it on the way down which were honestly perfect for a billboard about austerity. I won’t chew your ear off today about how hopeless Labour are (see my previous post about that) except to say that Starmer saying they’re going to cut public services by 11% to pay for more bullets and bombs fully sums up the awful priorities of this awful government. And today announced cutting £3 billion from disability allowance (PIP) trying to force the long-term sick and disabled either into work or into the grave.

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ADVERTISING ADVERTISING

Thanks to everyone who came down to the billboard subvertising workshop today and helped put this up, and thanks to @olstar73 for bringing his expertise and patience to get three billboards up in the space of an afternoon even as the final poster fell apart in our hands. This is one of the daftest designs I’ve ever committed to a billboard space and it makes me very happy. Love a bit of recursion, me.

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ARTIFICIAL AI

The Mechanical Turk was a machine built in 1770, at the start of the Industrial Revolution, that supposedly beat Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin at chess. It toured for 84 years before being destroyed in a fire and, although many suspected it was a scam, it was only revealed to have been a hoax as late as 1834. It seems obvious now, but it was essentially a box with a person inside. Today, we call this the AI revolution. AI is one of the most hyped technologies of my lifetime, and yet its real-world results either don’t work, are inaccurate, annoying, and/or thoroughly depressing. Supposedly fully-automated AI-tech is frequently revealed to be no more than thousands of low-paid workers in a trench coat.

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BARCLAYS X WIMBLEDON

I designed this poster as part of a new campaign by Brandalism taking over more than 300 commercial billboard, tube and bus shelter ads near the Wimbledon tennis tournament. “According to experts, Barclays is Europe’s largest funder of fossil fuels since 2016, and is a major lender to weapons companies supplying Israel. Last year alone, Barclays provided over £17.5 billion to fossil fuel companies driving up emissions and pollution, a 10% increase on the year before. Since 2019, they have provided over £6 billion in loans and underwriting to companies supplying Israel with weapons and military technology.” [Link]

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SHELL AGM

A new poster I made about Shell’s attitude towards the climate crisis has made its way onto hundreds of billboards, bus stops and tube carriages ahead of the Shell shareholders AGM next week. Massive thanks to Brandalism and all the tireless install teams who put these up! Will post more photos here soon.

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PEPSI AD

I love it when you only have to change one word. Low calorie, low effort subvertising. More here: subvertising.co.uk I’m slowly making a series of one-word Pepsi ad alterations. See previously: Subvertised pepsi ad, words changed to “Thirsty for more… SHITE”

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WAKE UP AND SMELL THE GENOCIDE

I feel numb from this week’s news. From yesterday’s Israeli Flour Massacre of over 112 starving Palestinians who were simply trying to get food from aid trucks, to the unbearably sickening photo being passed around an Israeli telegram channel of one of the victims who has been zip-tied as a prisoner and then flattened into unrecognisable human paste by an Israeli tank. Every time I feel like we have reached a high-water mark of horror and suffering in Gaza, Israel raises the threshold of just how much barbarism Western politicians and journalists can apparently accept and attempt to justify. Added to this, earlier in the week to see the video of USAF air man Aaron Bushnell setting fire to himself outside the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C as he screamed “Free Palestine” until he collapsed and died. He showed courage and commitment that I cannot fathom and I simply cannot shake the image from my mind of him shouting those words even as the flames entered his throat and burned his tongue. It was an unbelievably harrowing reminder of what has been done to tens of thousands of children, all in our name, with weapons made in our countries. The images of atrocity and barbarism that make it out of Gaza only remind us of what untold and undocumented horrors the people of Palestine have endured and will continue to endure because politicians in the West are complicit cowards in upholding American Empire. Israel being the American Empire’s most strategically important Imperial outpost. We need to make sure that those who are complicit in these crimes are never allowed to forget it. All the politicians who lined up to defend this genocide must be crammed into the dustbin of history. Instead of your vote, give them your contempt. Let them […]

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NIGER DELTA HELL BUS

Presenting the Niger Delta Hell Bus! A collaboration with Lekeh Development Foundation in support of Ogoni climate activists in the Niger Delta. I’m leaving Nigeria today so took a few photos for the road. There’s still things I want to add to the bus, a speaker system on the roof, ladders, and some sort of foldable stage would be great and it need a lot more sirens and lights (so it looks like a real Nigerian bus). Massive thanks to everyone who generously chipped into the crowdfunder to help make this version of the bus a reality, I’ve left the crowdfunder open until the end of the month to try and cover the bus’s running costs and also to fund a Hell t-shirt giveaway to activists out here since the shirts we printed for the march were so popular.

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LOSE YOUR HEAD

A load of these posters went up on the underground yesterday. Hopefully the authorities are able to take them all down in time for the #Coronation. More posters like this on the Subvertising page. Beheaded King Stamp – Limited Edition Prints Buy Now

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SO MANY FLAVOURS OF TORY TO CHOOSE FROM

Don’t forget to vote for your favourite flavour of Tory tomorrow! I’ll be voting Green in a solid Tory Red council so I’m not exactly expecting to budge the needle. But at the very least I’ll sleep soundly knowing my vote won’t be going to the Labour Right’s neoliberal, racist, war-hungry political project for the promotion of revolving-door briefcase dickheads who dream of nothing more than getting second jobs at privatised utilities firms or as advisors to gambling companies.

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BMW / TOYOTA BRANDALISM 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 Michelle Tylicki, Hogre, Matt Bonner, and Merny. 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 here:⁠ www.spellingmistakescostlives.com/subvertising⁠ More images and details of the other artists works in this campaign can be found on the Brandalism website.

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BARCLAYS #FOSSILBANKS

I made a new poster for a Brandalism campaign exposing Barclays’ dirty fossil fuel links and their funding of rainforest-clearing agribusinesses. It’s part of a campaign across 20 UK cities and towns with 200 billboard and bus stop posters. There’s more info and photos of the other artist’s posters in the campaign on the Brandalism website. More of my previous subvertising work here.

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FREE THE PRESS – EXTINCTION REBELLION

I’m happy that Extinction Rebellion have used my ‘Don’t Believe Everything Billionaires Tell You’ image as part of a their #FreeThePress campaign. It’s an uphill struggle to convince the public of the urgency of the climate crisis with the media consolidated in the hands of handful of billionaires who’s interests are best served by our continued reliance on fossil fuels. Extinction Rebellion’s blockade of Rupert Murdoch’s printing presses last year was one of their most impressive and effective actions to date. Prints, t-shirts, stickers and postcards of the original artwork are available from my shop.

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HSBC’S EMPTY CLIMATE PROMISES

I designed a new poster for Brandalism’s ongoing campaign focusing on HSBC’s empty climate promises. Billboard and bus stop posters were installed around the UK by Brandalism and volunteers from other anti-advertising groups. Massive thanks to everyone who put these in the street. More details about the project on the Brandalism website. More of my subvertising work here: www.spellingmistakescostlives.com/subvertising These posters are a follow up to one I made late last year.

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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.”⁠

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