BP’s Olympic branding defaced throughout London

 February 26, 2012 

 

Today hundreds of BP signs across London were targeted by activists protesting against the company’s role as ‘Sustainability Partner’ of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Around the capital, protesters hit petrol stations, advertising hoardings, and BP-sponsored cultural institutions[1], disfiguring hundreds of the famous BP ‘sunflower’ logo. Advertisements with the company’s Olympic strapline ‘fuelling the future’ were altered with the addition of three asterisks to make ‘f***ing the future’.

Wenlock & Mandeville at the National Maritime Museum

King's Cross Underground poster
Activists said the ‘subvertising’ action, dubbed ‘Brand Piracy’ day, would escalate public debate[2] of BP’s sponsorship after headlines in recent months had focused on the Dow controversy.[3] The action was said to be “the first of many” with “more BP branding to be targeted in the run up to the Olympics”.

One of those taking part in the action, Bridget Peterson, said, “BP has just closed its solar business[4] and is now plunging into highly polluting tar sands[5], exploring the pristine Arctic[6] and restarting its deepwater drilling operations[7]. These extreme forms of energy extraction are incompatible with stopping climate change,[8] yet BP pursues them greedily while gloatingly advertising itself as ‘Sustainability Partner’.”

Another activist, who wished to remain anonymous, explained, “The Olympics gives BP the chance to look ethical and yet lead the public down the garden path. BP pays millions to manufacture a false reputation as a ‘sustainable’ company,[9] and deflect all attention from its actual operations. This sickening marketing spree amounts to a major cover-up – and so today we took our own action to cover it up.”

A website, http://www.f-ingthefuture.org, shows pictures of the action and outlines the problems with BP’s sponsorship of the Olympics.  

For more information, interviews and high-resolution photos, email  f.ingthefuture@gmail.com or phone Bridget Peterson on 07741 103 248

Notes:

[1] Cultural institutions, especially the Tate, have long been targeted by activists concerned at oil companies using arts sponsorship to cover up their environmental and human rights atrocities. See e.g.  http://www.artnotoil.org.uk and  http://liberatetate.wordpress.com/

[2] Concern over BP’s sponsorship of the Olympics entered the news last week when a coalition of NGOs and individuals wrote an open letter to Olympic organisers. See  http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/feb/17/olympic-games-protest-bp-sponsorship

[3] See e.g.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/feb/09/london-2012-sustainability-ioc-ethics

[4] BP closed its solar business in December 2011. See  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/80cd4a08-2b42-11e1-9fd0-00144feabdc0.htm

[5] For more information on tar sands, see  http://www.no-tar-sands.org/what-are-the-tar-sands/

[6] See  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-08/tnk-bp-to-spend-12-billion-on-four-yamal-fields-to-boost-output.html

[7] Deepwater operations were announced to be restarted in April 2011. See  http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/04/04/uk-bp-idUKTRE7330SZ20110404 The company still faces a civil court case over the Deepwater Horizon disaster due to start at the end of February. See  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/68715b32-5cb3-11e1-ac80-00144feabdc0.html

[8] NASA Climate Scientist James Hansen has shown that a safe level of CO2 can only be reached if coal is phased out and unconventional fossil fuels are not explored. See  http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/06/05/236978/james-hansen-keystone-pipeline-tar-sands-climate/

[9] Research shows that BP’s sponsorship of the Olympics has indeed improved its public image. See  http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1117665/BPs-brand-image-benefits-London-2012-sponsorship-claims-research/

Hackney roof top defiance north london February 20, 2012

Anti eviction at work, squats saved by the people. Early friday morning, police and bailiffs turned up to evict a row of squatted houses in Dalston lane, but luckily the anti eviction squad was out, in numbers this time with over 60 people blocking the road and lining the rooftop.

please remove your banner, its rude...

nice turn out

pan left

pan right

helpless
As the morning progressed with music, sandwiches and the barking of a dog, the police and bailiffs were helpless bystanders, who finally agreed they would leave on the condition that the 'fuck the Olympics banner was removed because its a bit rude, as the people on the roof top laughingly refused, the police drove away morally defeated.
In this time of uncertain squatting future, people are standing up in solidarity to house each other, at a real grass roots level.
A lovely morning, and houses saved.

UPDATED: Coca-Cola Wall At Hackney Wick Defaced (london)

Published on February 23rd, 2012

As predicted by many, the controversial Coca-Cola wall in Hackney Wick has been given the fire extinguisher treatment. It didn’t last long did it!
Before the wall was dogged, The London Vandal had spoken to Monorex, the agency behind this work, and they offered this comment on the wall:
“We try to do our bit to make advertising a little more exciting and support artists in many ways – like the INSA wall in Birmingham! That Olympic wall was destined for print advertising – so our hand painted image, we feel, was the better solution! Monorex & Coke were always planning on commissioning original art after this campaign.Part of our agreement”.



We have no idea if Coca-Cola are going to dig deep in their pockets to keep this wall maintained throughout the Olympics, or if they are going to abandon it now that they have filmed and photographed it. If they do try to painting this wall, you can be sure this won’t be the last time it get’s dogged.
Here is the video advert that Coca-Cola used the wall in, just so you can see what all of the fuss is about:

UPDATE:
High Rise Murals, who worked with Monorex on this project, have just been online and posted this photo. Seems like Coca-Cola will not be maintaining the wall after all!
High Rise Murals are asking the residents of Hackney Wick how they would like to see the wall filled on their Facebook page. Thanks to The Visual Yard for the update.

Preparations for military repression at UK 2012 Olympics

Hundreds of soldiers from 3rd

battalion The Parachute Regiment

spent last week learning how to

contain and arrest "rioters" in a

series of exercises mirroring last

summers violence. During the

exercises at the Lydd training base in

Kent, the elite troops were pelted

with petrol bombs and missiles and

"fought" running battles with gangs

of protesters as part of the

battalion's "public order training".

The battalion is the lead unit in the

Airborne Task Force - the Army's

premier rapid response unit and can

be called on to deal with a wide

range of emergency situations - from

hostage rescue to riot control -

around the world.

In the past, riot training was carried

out by all troops deploying to

Northern Ireland where public

disturbances were commonplace.

But those “skills” have been “lost”

following the major withdrawal of

troops from the streets of the

occupied land.

During last week's training package

young soldiers were taught how to

use body-length use riots shields,

protect themselves from missiles

and how to identify and arrest "ring

leaders' using specially trained

"snatch squads".

Troops were trained into how to

work as teams armed with bodylength

shields in driving back hostile

crowds.

Last summer's rioting was sparked

by the police shooting of Mark

Duggan in Tottenham and the brutal

beating of a young girl when the

family and friends demanded

answers.

The violence quickly spread across

London and to other cities where

police were attacked with fire

bombs, shops were looted and

businesses burnt to the ground.

One senior police source said: "The

police couldn't cope with last

year's riots and the Army came very

close to being deployed.”

"All of the Army's riot equipment

was in Scotland at the time and

that created a time delay but

lessons from that have been learnt.

The Army could have deployed but

it would have been only marginally

quicker than the police.”

The riots were the best for a

generation and caused over £300m

of damage. Hundreds of shops and

warehouses were looted as masses

of people and gangs of youth

informally organised attacks via

twitter and other social media sites.

The number and spontaneity of the

riots often meant that police from

forces across the country, but

especially in London, were stretched

to the limit and in many cases

overwhelmed.

THE GAMES OF FINANCE ARE

ONLY ABOUT MONEY, SOCIAL

CONTROL & SPECTACLE

AGAINST THE MEGA-PROJECT

OF THE SPECULATORS AND

CORPORATE ELITES

RIOT 2012