Hundreds of Tube Adverts Subverted

400 fake adverts can be found displayed on trains across the London Underground Network today, installed by the ‘subvertising agency’ Agitartworks. The campaign is in commemoration of the ten year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, which itself brought an end to over ten destructive years of sanctions and airstrikes against the country. The posters were stuck on top of adverts already lining the train carriages. The adverts use images of British and American soldiers posing with dead bodies in scenes that became iconic of the invasion. No arrests were made as a result of the action.

The subvertising campaign is named ‘More than just a job’ and imitates a recent series of army recruitment posters. One of the false adverts depicts two American soldiers standing over a pile of bodies with bags over their heads, a speech bubble claiming: “I wanted a job doing more than just stacking shelves”. The picture was taken in the American controlled Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad in 2003.

 Explaining the reasoning behind the subvertisements, a member of Agitartworks said: “’More than just a job’ is a commemoration of the biggest injustice to democracy that the UK has ever seen. Despite millions of people protesting in London, Tony Blair used a dossier to justify invasion of Iraq which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of violent deaths and horrific destruction.

This is not just a protest against the war, but against the corruption of the decision making process that led to that invasion and the role of the free press and corporate media that helped make it possible. All of which later normalised the murder, and human rights abuses that have resulted from western pre-emptive action.”

For more details on the background to this campaign, please see Agitartworks website. To see the posters  – Click Here