Tube network covered with anti-advertising messages by 'brandalism' group

Tube campaign: The posters have been distributed across the London Underground network
Special Patrol Group
Patrick Grafton-Green15 November 2016

A 'brandalism' group has targeted the London Underground by covering hundreds of advertisements with posters claiming "advertising s***s in your head".

The Special Patrol Group (SPG) says adverts are a form of “visual pollution that is harmful for the public” and claims to have dispatched 40 agents to take on the Tube network.

Transport for London has declared the move an act of "vandalism" but has not confirmed the extent of the damage.

The SPG says 400 ads have been altered with a series of four ‘subverts’ which look to explain the logic behind the group’s actions.

The group has released a four-point manifesto online, as well as a petition, and says its aim is to get outdoor advertising banned in London.

The petition says: "We're calling on Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to follow his fellow Mayors in Sao Paulo and Grenoble and take action to ban outdoor advertising - or, at very least, place restrictions on it (in the same way that there are restrictions on other things that have harmful effects).

"We welcome his intervention on sexist advertising, but we're asking him to go further; Sadiq has pledged to take action against air-pollution in the Capital: will he take action to protect Londoners from harmful visual-pollution too?"

Earlier this year Mr Khan said adverts which put Londoners under pressure over body image will be banned from the Tube and bus network.

A TfL spokeswoman said: “This is not an authorised advert. It is fly posting and therefore an act of vandalism which we take extremely seriously.

"We have instructed our contractor to remove any found on our network.”

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