Plane Stupid issues 48hr subvertising challenge

It’s that time of year when every air­line starts aggres­sive­ly adver­tis­ing for your busi­ness. Well, we’ve had enough. Plane Stu­pid is invit­ing all of you to take part in its very own sub­ver­tis­ing com­pe­ti­tion. From Thurs­day 22nd April — Fri­day 23rd April, we’ll be launch­ing 48 hours of stick­er-whack­ing, sub­ver­tis­ing, adbust­ing pan­de­mo­ni­um.

The avi­a­tion indus­try spends mil­lions every year telling us that we’re no good to any­one unless we keep fly­ing with them. So it’s time to hit back! Like tobac­co adverts, avi­a­tion adver­tis­ing needs to become a thing of the past. But until then, let’s sub­ver­tise. Any poster, advert or bill­board is fair game.

Whether you’re a first time activist look­ing for an easy way-in, or an old timer look­ing for some light relief.….….it’s time to take to the streets and reclaim some pub­lic space. Tak­ing part is easy:

1. You can down­load a choice of designs from our Flickr site, or use your design skills to make your own.
2. Print them out on stan­dard, non divid­ed, A4 stick­er paper (avail­able from most print­ers and sta­tion­ers).
3. Then find your near­est avi­a­tion adver­tise­ment.
4. Stick ’em up punk!
5. Take pho­tographs, set up a new tem­po­rary email address in an inter­net cafe (under a pseu­do­nym) and email your images to info@planestupid.com.

The group who stick­ers the most adverts in the 48 hour peri­od wins. Wins what? Prizes! We got the bumper crop of 5 spray cans, Cul­ture Jam by Kalle Lasn, Do It Your­self, A hand­book for chang­ing our world, by the Trapese Col­lec­tive and Scrib­ble­boy by Philip Rid­ley to give away.

Of course don’t feel lim­it­ed to indi­vid­ual stick­ers, think big! You can write your own mes­sage on large stretch­es of blank wall paper to cov­er whole bill boards. Make up some wall paper paste, get a paint roller, a stick it up. If nec­es­sary — attach the roller to a broom han­dle for those hard to reach places. Help­ful­ly, there’s some great how-to guides on t’in­ter­net.

One last point. Please be respect­ful about where you stick­er. Cor­po­rate nas­ties are fine.….but the local old peo­ple’s homes may not appre­ci­ate your art on their walls!

Use your head, and remem­ber to dress well for the occa­sion — caps and scarves are the in thing this sub­ver­tis­ing sea­son. Some offi­cers of the law may be con­vinced that sub­ver­tis­ing is bor­der­line ille­gal, so take a friend as look­out, keep an eye open for CCTV and don’t get caught.