Award 29: Amazon Brandalism

“Agile, immortal, brilliant, efficient, superhumanly strong and intelligent, undeniably seductive. Yet also heartless, deeply amoral, selfish, exploitive, cold. All that is on display at Amazon, where the cult of consumer obsession provides all the moral justification that’s needed – for anything. In the world of Amazon, the end always justifies the means.” — Robin Gaster, author of ‘Behemoth: Amazon Rising’

We supported the Brandalism team to subvert ad spaces with large format, satirical artistic challenges to the consumerism of Black Friday as part of the Make Amazon Pay movement. Six new designs appeared across London and Bristol.

The Brandalism team say "On Black Friday billboards and digital advertising messages go into overdrive; promoting must-have deals and the virtues of hyperconsumerism. Amazon’s profits and ever-growing reach into new sectors of our economy is built upon the squeezed pay and conditions of workers, with a resource-hungry model that is driving up greenhouse gas emissions and a world-beating ability to minimise tax payments across the globe. CEO Jeff Bezos has now amassed a personal wealth of $200 billion.

Since 2022, groups in The Subvertisers’ International have been confronting the outdoor advertising industry with two weeks of decentralised, creative actions by affinity groups across Europe - the so-called ‘ZAP Games’. ZAP is french for Zone Anti-Publicité (Anti-Advertising Zone) - and reflects the games origins in Brussells.

Just as the over-bearing calls to consume reach their Black Friday pinnacle, hundreds of advertising spaces are playfully reclaimed, altered, re-decorated or re-purposed across Europe. There are even awards for different action categories such as Most Family-Friendly intervention, Sculpture and ‘Surprise’: with a light-hearted Awards Ceremony to showcase and celebrate all the actions.

Meanwhile, workers at Amazon sites across the world staged walk outs, protests and strikes on Black Friday as part of the formidable Make Amazon Pay coalition of groups pushing for workers rights, tax justice and a liveable planet.

The creative gaming approach of the ZAP Games encourages everyday folk, no matter what level of artistic skill you might hold, to speak back to the one-way communication of corporate advertising. In doing so, we can confront the advertising of Big Tech corporations such as Amazon and their exploitative business models. Black Friday is becoming a focal point for intersectional organising and cross-sector solidarity; a day of consumer excess built on exploitation of people and planet can become a catalyst for change.

Find out more about it here:

https://subvertisers-international.net/action/zap-games/

https://makeamazonpay.com/