A guerrilla billboarding action across UK is targeting Shell in the run up to its AGM.

Brandalism activists have replaced more than 200 commercial adverts on billboards, bus stops and tube carriages with satirical artworks protesting Shell’s efforts to “fast track the apocalypse”, as shareholders prepare to vote on Shell’s climate strategy.

Activists and artists involved in the action say that Shell is using youth marketing, sports sponsorships and political lobbying to maintain the firm’s reputation during their expanding fossil fuel production and recent U-turns on green pledges.

Tona Merriman from Brandalism said: “To quote the tobacco marketers of the 1980s, “The problem is how do you sell death?”. Shell is on a mission to sell its own lethal legacy, using influencers, greenwash advertising, sports sponsorship and political connections to deflect attention from its growing contribution to climate breakdown, which is reversing decades of progress in health and causing death and destruction worldwide.”

Shell’s 2023 AGM was heavily disrupted by activists who delayed the start of the meeting, in which investors rejected new targets for carbon emissions cuts.

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