Lisbon, March 25, 2025 (Lusa) - In Lisbon on Tuesday, the environmental movement Climáximo replaced adverts on street hoardings with works of art to protest against car advertising.
"Allowing car advertising is like allowing tobacco advertising," the movement said in a statement, considering that there is an urgent need for “an effective system of free public transport that serves people's needs”.
To celebrate today's International Day Against Advertising, supporters of the Climáximo collective have replaced the adverts with works of art near the Santa Apolónia and Cais do Sodré transport stations that denounce the impacts of car advertising.
The aim, they say, is to "draw attention to the negative consequences of car advertising", with ads that "perpetuate stereotypes and encourage individualistic motoring excesses that are incompatible with an ecological and just energy transition that prioritises public transport".
The artist Michelle Tylicki was one of those invited to design one of the posters and was inspired by the Flemish tradition of the 15th century to warn of the risks facing the world today.
"Like a Van Eyck altarpiece for the age of collapse, this piece presents The Last Judgement. It condemns the advertisers and car manufacturers who sell speed and excess as salvation," says the artist, quoted by the movement.
"Tesla and the electric vehicle industry disguise destruction with a green halo, but more cars - electric or not - won't save us," she adds.
For Climáximo, "the transport sector, powered largely by fossil fuels, is responsible for a large part of greenhouse gas emissions" and the solution is "a free, efficient and accessible public transport system for all people and throughout the territory, including international connections".
The movement recalls the proposal it presented a month ago, Climáximo's ‘Plan for Disarmament and Peace’, which outlines "a realistic, fair and time-compatible plan for the climate crisis to make this energy transition and create a public transport system for all people, among other measures necessary for a large-scale social, labour and production transformation".
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