Fake ad boards slam ‘polluters’

ECO-ACTIVISTS protesting at the Paris climate summit have used parodies of advertising posters to attack firms and politicians they say are not committed enough to fighting climate change.

Activists from London-based protest group Brandalism doctored 600 outdoor panels supplied by advertising firm JCDecaux in parts of Paris including the suburb of Le Bourget where the COP21 global climate summit is being held.

One panel features the Chinese president Xi Jinping with a coal-powered plant superimposed over his hair, another sports the slogan Volkswagen, roulez plus propre, du moins en apparence (“Volkswagen, at least pretend to run more cleanly”).

The action was carried out by some fifty activists, who managed to replace the original adverts with parodic posters of their own without damaging the advertising boards.

A Brandalism activist known as Fantine said: “The government has chosen to forbid demonstrations – we had to raise questions in a different way. These posters denounce consumerism and the exploitation of our desires which are essentially based on fossil-fuel energies and which therefore have a direct impact on climate change.”

‘Fantine’ added that JCDecaux had been quick to publicise its involvement in the climate change summit but suggested that it had not been rigorous enough in assessing the environmental record of companies paying for its advertising space: “There are a certain number of sponsors who are parodied in these posters because they are trying to give themselves a greener image, while they are significant polluters like Air France.”