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Wednesday 9, August

“Sabotage Putin’s War”: Adbusting campaign adds anti-war slogans to Berlin posters

Activist group "Asylum for conscientious objectors now!" calls for a widening of refugee protections.

Photo: © Asyl für Kriegsdienstverweigerer jetzt!

Wednesday 9, August

Sabotage Putin’s War: “Adbusting” campaign adds anti-war slogans to posters across Berlin

The perpetrators chose their targets carefully. Outside the Russian embassy on Unter den Linden, at a bus stop on Washingtonplatz and outside the Belarussian embassy, advertising posters were deliberately modified and vandalised to include political slogans. This action was undertaken by “Asylum for conscientious objectors now!” – an activist group calling for refugee protection to be granted to anyone who opposes war from Belarus, Russia or Ukraine. There, political rights are severely limited, and conscientious objection of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is outlawed.

Photo: © Asyl für Kriegsdienstverweigerer jetzt!

This type of protest, where adverts are deliberately modified, is called “adbusting”. In this case, text from adverts for everything from the BVG, ice cream and shower gel was replaced with political messages such as “Give dictators the chills. Support Russian and Belarusian war resisters!” and “Make dictators tremble. Support Russian and Belarusian opponents of the war!”

Each of the posters included a QR code and a link to the homepage of an organisation for conscientious objectors, which promotes itself using the hashtag #ObjectWarCampaign.