Description
Each year around Black Friday, the ZAP Games take place. This is direct action taken against advertisements in Brussels and elsewhere in the world. Ads are taken down, billboards are filled with creative works and critical messages and digital ad screens are repurposed. Any team that wants to prepare to take action can join and send videos and pictures to the ZAP Games platform. The first edition was held in 2020. The 2022 edition featured international teams for the first time.
Example of actions: Namur sans Pub 2021 and 2022
One of the organisers, Namur sans Pub, joined the actions in 2021 and 2022. They organized creative actions against ads and commercialisation of their city on Black Friday. In 2021, around thirty activists put up a 394-metre-long carpet of ad posters in the city center. The carpet was composed of poster rolls that were taken out of busstops. In 2022, thirty ad panels were covered demanding ‘stars, not ads’. Next to targeting consumerism promoted on Black Friday, this action also clearly highlighted the high energy prices and the accelerating climate crisis. Namur sans Pub stated that individuals are urged to save energy, but that advertising companies continue to waste electricity lighting up billboards, harming the environment.
Example of actions: international editions up to 2024
During the ZAP Games in 2024, 27 actions and intervention in Lisbon, Sydney, Valencia, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Paris, Lyon, Rennes, Villeneuve Loubet, Lyon, London, Bristol and Norwich were staged. The 2024 internation edition winners can be found here. All participants from international editions can be found here.
