Paint The Streets

Our longstanding flyposting & subvertising campaign. A great low-risk first NVDA action.

What is Paint The Streets?

Paint the Streets is an ongoing creative campaign, breaking social norms to raise awareness about the climate & ecological emergency. Paint the Streets includes murals, stickering, flyposting, stencilling, chalking, banner drop actions, and subvertising bus stops and billboards.

Get involved with a UK-wide campaign or launch your own local campaign around local climate issues.

Connect with others taking part here:

What are the aims of Paint the Streets?
Why is Paint the Streets great for outreach and mobilisation?
Who can take part?
What can I do?

To view these guidelines in one rolling googledoc: Paint The Streets Info Pack.

Planning a Paint the Streets Campaign

How do I join an existing Paint the Streets group?

The most likely points of contact to find out if you have a local / regional Paint The Streets group are either your local group coordinators, arts coordinator or actions coordinator.

You can also take action with your affinity group or by yourself, although some activities like fly-posting are easier with a small group of people.

Join the Paint The Streets UK Telegram chat to share images and ideas, ask for advice, and be part of a supportive community. Please share your photos!

Local/Regional Campaigns

How do we coordinate campaigns with other local groups?

Simultaneous actions across the country can have a very powerful effect, so please connect up with your regional Action Planners group to get informed or share ideas to bring into synchronised campaigns.

UK Wide Campaigns

Planning to create or scale up a Paint The Streets action campaign UK-wide? If you’re planning a new campaign please be mindful of:

Share your action brief or just sound out ideas with the Paint The Streets coordinating group. Contact the group by posting in the Telegram chat and ask someone from the team to reply. Or get in touch with Action Circle to check in on calendar, capacity and funding, via xr-action@protonmail.com

Key thing to bear in mind:

Is there funding available for materials?

XRUK funding for printing posters and buying materials is currently limited. Ask your Regional and Local Group coordinators if your group has any budget available.

Paint the Streets Messaging Focus

Paint the Streets Messaging Focus

Rebel for Truth - Paint The Streets 2024

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Spend 2024 spreading the love, creativity - and of course a little bit of mischief. Share the message Rebel for Truth far and wide.

Everyone. Everywhere.

Rebel for Truth is a main messaging theme of XR for 2024. You can find the messaging guidance pack here. (note: This is for all messaging, and is not Paint the Streets specific)

Resources

The Paint the Streets google drive also has an archive of campaigns and designs; from bus stop and billboards, to posters and flyers (this is being updated).
Note: The logo is copyrighted and not to be used for commercial purposes.

If you want to create your own posters etc, check out Aktavisda or download the XR fonts to use on your preferred editing software.

Slogans

The main slogans for the Rebel for Truth campaign are:

REBEL FOR TRUTH

CITIZENS ASSEMBLE

Paint the Streets Messaging Focus

Paint the Streets Slogans

A wide range of slogans have been used by XR over the years. Here are some of the most successful slogans that resonated with people who saw them.

November 2023

REBEL FOR TRUTH

CITIZENS ASSEMBLE

Core XR slogans

REBEL FOR LIFE

TELL THE TRUTH

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY

ACT NOW

REBEL FOR TRUTH

CITIZENS ASSEMBLE

NO FOOD NO FUTURE

THIS IS NOT A DRILL

NO MUSIC ON A DEAD PLANET

NO FUTURE ON A DEAD PLANET

---------------- ON A DEAD PLANET

FRUGALITY, HUMILITY, EMPATHY

REFLECT, REBEL, RELINQUISH

FLY TODAY, NO TOMORROW

YOU CAN’T EAT MONEY

NOW OR NEVER

TIME IS UP

DEEDS NOT WORDS (nicked from Suffragettes)

WE ACT IN PEACE

THIS IS CHANGE

CHANGE IS NOW

EVERYTHING WILL CHANGE, EVERYTHING CAN CHANGE

STOP THE HARM

LOVE IN ACTION

PEACE

Older Slogans

April 2023

UNITE TO SURVIVE

CHOOSE YOUR FUTURE

DECIDE TOGETHER

REPARATIONS NOW

Slogans from specific campaigns

PEOPLE OVER PROFIT

OUR AMAZON

GOVERNMENT INACTION KILLS

REWILD

WE ARE NATURE DEFENDING ITSELF

IMAGINE THE IMPOSSIBLE

BIG OIL IS THE POISON, ACTION IS THE ANTIDOTE

INVEST IN LIFE NOT DEATH

MUTUAL AID

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

NHS NOT HS2

STOP HS2

PPE not GDP

Elements of Paint the Streets

Elements of Paint the Streets

Paint The Symbol

Let's get the Extinction Symbol EVERYWHERE!

Why? The more visible XR is, the better our cause will land with the public. There are many who would like to silence us: we need to be unmissable.

How? Sharpies, stencils and paint; posters, stickers… and boundless imagination. Here are some ideas:

Every Day Symboling

Get yourself a stash of markers, and take them out with you. Something like the Uni Paint PX-20 is good. At a minimum, get black and white.

Opportunity is everywhere, especially if you look out for circles!

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Get hold of stickers! Lamp posts, crossings, adverts – look for spots where there are clean sightlines.

WHERE ARE MORE PEOPLE GOING TO SEE THE SYMBOL? Entrances, exits, main thoroughfares. On the ceiling of the bus. A cash machine.

How about stencilling the symbol? You're in luck. There's a template and guide to making a symbol stencil

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Affinity Symboling

Get yourself a Symbol Affinity Group, a can of spray paint and a ladder!

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Height is good. Try and avoid everyone else’s graff. You’ll be painted over, and not stand out as well.

Plan Ahead. Stake out your ’hood. Where are the great sightlines? Where several roads meet, or where you’ll have the most impact. Upset the visual narrative!

Painting The Symbol is a bit naughty, do be careful.

Obviously if you are going to actually try and turn the London Eye into The World’s Largest Symbol you may end up in significantly more trouble. Check out legal guidance here.

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Elements of Paint the Streets

Flyposting

a grid of assorted XR posters if being pasted onto a bluw wall by two people wearing hi-vis jackets

Planning your flyposting action

Check out this general guidance for how to organise all sorts of Paint the Streets actions, then come back here for specific advice for flyposting.

Organise a flyposting team

Get together in an affinity group of 2-5 people. Roles needed are:

Note: Avoid taking (or posting online) photos of anyone actually doing the flyposting as it could be used as evidence in the future. Always obtain permission before taking a photo of someone.

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What materials do I need for fly-posting?

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Key tactics when flyposting:

What's a suitable target?

Remember, you don’t have to flypost; you can give posters away and put them up on school/university noticeboards, in windows of cafes and on flyer tables. People often like being given things and to have a chance to share their thoughts on the climate and ecological emergency- use any available opportunity for outreach.

General good targets:

Fly-posting Etiquette

DO target: derelict buildings, areas with existing fly-posting, electrical boxes, lamp posts, and ugly structures, temporary hoardings. Pick areas with high footfall.

DON’T target private property, institutions like schools, hospitals and police stations! Avoid pasting over someone else’s poster unless it’s out of date.

If you still need more guidance, check out this amazing website: Everything You Need to Know to Blanket the World in Posters

Elements of Paint the Streets

Stencils & Murals

Stencilling

Left image- a stencil of an eye with the resulting image above. Right image- someone holds a stencil of a bee as they paint it pink with a roller

How do I make a stencil?

Paris68redux have created a and comprehensive guide on stencil and print making

Are there environmentally friendly sprays and paints?

An inage of a pavement, with 'Tell' 'The' and 'Truth' stencilled all over it in white, pink, yellow and black spray paint

Is it okay to chalk spray, paint or flypost local businesses?

Rebels are asked to be mindful about where they paint the streets.

Please do not damage private property or small and independent businesses as this can be seen as vandalism and might impact relationships within the community. Try and use materials which cause minimal damage to the environment.

Some actions potentially seen as “vandalism” may have a high risk of arrest if private sector buildings are targeted. It is unclear what police reaction will be to some of these actions, so read the legal advice and take precautions.

What about spraying over existing artwork?

As a golden rule don’t not tag over other posters and spray tags as this could cause conflict. Organised fly-posters and graffiti groups can be territorial and could get violent.

How do I create reverse graffiti?

A weathered pavement with a white logo on which shows a pair of lungs. Underneath is the text 'Our Air Our City'

Reverse graffiti (or ‘clean graffiti’) involves removing dirt or dust from a dirty surface to create an image or text. XR Bristol have created a ‘How to’ video.

Murals

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Large scale murals are a big undertaking, but there are some beautiful examples that have been created over the years. If you're thinking of creating a mural you can find lots of tips and guidance in the XR Guide to Murals

Elements of Paint the Streets

Subvertising

A bus stop with a fake Shell advert. The advert shows a petrol station on fire with the title 'Burn Now... Pay Later, our new climate policy

What is Subvertising?

Subvertising is the practice of lighting up the streets with spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. By using witty and cutting satire of companies subvertisers are able to expose racial and climate injustice. We use subvertising to turn the iconography of advertisers on it's head. If images can create a brand, they can also destroy one.

Join the Paint The Streets Telegram and/or ask your actions group to connect you into subvertising spaces.

Check out XR Lambeth's ad-hacking video here.

Working with partner groups

Crews like Zap Games, Special Patrol Facebook Group and Brandalism are currently active alongside Extinction Rebellion.

Note: Brandalism and Special Patrol Group are separate organisations to XR and any reproduction of their work must be credited.

How do I get into a bus top?

There are videos, guides and websites with plenty of info but the main piece of kit people use is a T30 key, high visibility jackets and non-descript worker clothes; it’s best to hide in plain sight and look like they belong when they are putting up the posters.

What artwork should I use?

To keep costs down, groups have been known to remove adverts and hand paint chosen messages on to the back of the adverts. It’s also common practice to edit posters, focusing specifically on companies complicit in the climate crisis.

For Design Assets you can use to create your own artwork, check out the Paint the Streets Google Drive

Where can I get bus stop ads printed?

To print bus stops sized sheets use DigitalPrinting and select 6 sheet measuring 1,200mm x 1,800mm.

There is generally a view that this kind of action is a lower level in arrestability.

From the Brandalism Subvertising manual:

Resources

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Elements of Paint the Streets

Banner Drops

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You can find lots of details about organising Banner Drops here.

Will chalking or flyposting get me arrested?

You are unlikely to get stopped in the UK.

The police are usually uninterested in chalking and flyposting, unless you force them to take action by doing it under their noses.

NOTE: Avoid taking or posting photos of anyone doing the work if they are potentially identifiable as it can be used as evidence against them.

What if I’m stopped?

If you are stopped it’s more likely to be a member of the public, private security, or a police community support officer (who don’t have any more power than the others).

The best response is normally to simply walk away. If this is not possible and you are ‘detained’ you aren’t obliged to say anything to anyone. This technically includes the police, though not confirming your details can increase the possibility of arrest.

If arrested it’s normally advisable to confirm who you are. If you dont you are likely to be held overnight and taken to court the next day.

The most likely charge is Criminal Damage, but there is now a higher threshold to successfully prosecute. A recent ruling confirmed that it is not in the public interest to prosecute if the damage caused was part of a legitimate protest and was ‘minor and temporary’ in nature.

The specific example given by the court was chalk-based paint on a pavement. The threshold would be lower if the damage was on private property and if you cause damage that would have significant ‘clean-up costs’ a prosecution would be likely.

The penalty for criminal damage largely depends on the cost of the damage caused. If convicted you would normally be expected to pay some or all of any clean-up costs incurred, the prosecution's legal fees, a victim surcharge and a sentence ranging from a conditional discharge to low-level fine for damage of less than £5k.

In some circumstances, the police may decide to resolve the matter through a fixed penalty notice.

For more information check out the Green and Black Cross website.

Scotland has different rulings, more info can be found here.