“We have yet to invent the politics and new forms of collaborative action—this century’s equivalent of the social movements of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries that aimed to tether raw capitalism to society—that effectively assert the people’s right to a human future. And while the work of these inventions awaits us, this mobilization and the resistance it engenders will define a key battleground upon which the fight for a human future unfolds.”
Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
“[Fossil fuel companies] have been aided and abetted by advertising and PR companies – Mad Men fuelling the madness.”
UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, June 2024
Birmingham event: When fossil capitalism met surveillance advertising
Saturday 8th March 2025, public talk at 4pm
(Exhibition open all day from 10am – 6pm)
As wildfires ravaged Los Angeles this January 2025, fossil fuel companies took out ads across California to stop new climate legislation at the state level. In Britain fossil fuel giants BP and Shell have bought ad spaces on public transport networks to focus attention on its renewable projects whilst slashing its green investments plans and ramping up oil and gas investments.
All around us, advertisers are building new digital advertising screens in our streets with creeping surveillance technologies.
Join us for the Birmingham launch of Digital Dystopia – a mock advertising unit made from recycled electronic waste – re-engineered to reveal the tactics of misdirection used by major polluters to maintain their social licence to operate. We’ll discuss how we build sustainable futures beyond consumerism to meet our needs; and how to create urban spaces that centre community connection, solidarity, public art and access to nature.
With Robbie Gillett and Chloe Naldrett from Adfree Cities & Badvertising.
