Anti-Brexit group launches redesign contest for Government ‘propaganda’ posters
Creative members of the public have been called upon to satirically redesign the Government’s “get ready for Brexit” campaign.
Anti-Brexit group Led By Donkeys has launched a competition which will see the five best remakes of the Government advertisements put on billboards across the country.
The contest will be judged by The Thick Of It creator Armando Iannucci and comedy actor and writer David Schneider, and aims to ridicule a campaign which has reportedly cost the taxpayer £100 million.
“It’s an absolutely colossal amount of taxpayers’ money going into what is basically a Brexit propaganda campaign,” Led By Donkeys’ Oliver Knowles told the PA news agency.
“It seems crazy that at a time when so many social services are under so much pressure after years of austerity, that so much money should go into something as crazy as this.”
People can enter the competition by visiting ledbydonkeys.com, where they can also use an online tool to create their own version of the Government Brexit messages, which have been published on social media, billboards and in newspapers in recent months.
Will Rose, of Led By Donkeys, said: “If you absolutely must launch a £100 million propaganda campaign at taxpayers’ expense to make Brexit feel inevitable, at least make it good.
“Instead, (Boris) Johnson and (Michael) Gove have come up with a cross between a supermarket’s own brand pasta packaging and the 1980s England football kit.”
Led By Donkeys said the judges, who it described as “comedy heroes”, will be looking for “creativity, great satire and someone who gets the cause”.
Hi @patel4witham, we saw your Tory election adverts masquerading as Home Office police recruitment ads. If you were serious about police numbers you wouldn’t be spaffing £100m up the wall on your hopeless “Get Ready For Brexit” campaign. (Location: Portsmouth International Port) pic.twitter.com/WRXWkelsD5
— Led By Donkeys (@ByDonkeys) September 23, 2019
“Billboards mean billboards,” said Mr Schneider. “And I’m very much looking forward to helping people use them to try and prorogue our Brexit misery.
“I shall try and be as decent and fair a judge as Lady Hale in this comedy Supreme Court.”
Iannucci added: “All we are doing is taking back control of our billboards.
“Together, we can spaff posters on to prime advertising space and send a message: that message is ‘Please Help Us, God’.”
Led By Donkeys has made its name by protesting against Brexit with various large-scale projects in public spaces, first going viral in early 2019 by sharing politicians’s past statements on billboards with the aim of highlighting hypocrisy.
