They can't arrest this billboard

The right to protest powers democracy. It’s behind many of the biggest leaps forward society has seen. In recent years however, people’s freedom to join peaceful demonstrations has been quietly eroded.

Confronting this reality head on, elvis and Greenpeace have launched ‘They can’t arrest this billboard’ - a simultaneous digital protest across three UK cities which allows activists to make their stand inside Digital Out of Home screens, an act which draws attention to the very real risk of their arrest if they were outside. Each advert faithfully represents the individual protester as if they were actually present on the street, the activists each representing an issue that they have protested about in the past and want to continue doing so in the future. Outdoor audiences moving along the virtual OOH protest routes will encounter a sequence of different activists, just as they would in a real-life protest.

The campaign is presented in partnership with Amnesty International UK, Friends of the Earth and Liberty. Activists featured are Khalid Abdallah, actor and protestor for Palestinian rights; Dr Helen Salisbury, GP and protestor for Keep Our NHS Public; Andy Greene, a disability rights activist with Disabled People Against the Cuts; Andrew McParland, climate activist and Greenpeace UK board member; Jen Reid, author and Black Lives Matter activist; and Sahanika Ratnayake, an academic who protests on environmental issues.

‘They can’t arrest this billboard’ was awarded the Gold prize in the non-profit category of Ocean Outdoor’s annual Digital Creative Competition .