Congratulations to everyone who took part in the ZAP Games 2023. ZAP is french for Zone Anti-Publicité / Anti-Advertising Zone. It is two weeks of affinity groups actions against Black Friday consumerism and the advertising industry.
Outside of Belgium, where the orignal ZAP Games were created in 2020, there were around 34 actions and interventions in San Francisco, Paris, Nancy, Grenoble, Hamburg, Pisa, London, Bristol, Liverpool, Leeds, Reading, Cambridge and Birmingham. Here are the winners of each category.
Be sure to check out the Belgium ZAP Games website for all the excellent entries: https://zapgames.net
Most Beautiful Intervention
Winner: Frank Riot
“May Your Olive Trees Flourish”
Site-specific intervention outside the US embassy, London.
Big Category
Winner: Adbock Hackney
“One Big ZAP” Triple billboard intervention in London on billboards that don’t have planning permission.
See all entries for this category.
Digital Screens category
Winner: Reading BS Appreciation Society
This teams skillful covering of 4 digital ad screens in Reading, England won them much applause on social media and coverage in their local newspaper.
Greatest Number of Panels
Winner: Team Make Love Not Ads
A prolific use of scissors and montage lettering one this team the ‘Greatest Number of Panels’ category.
Most Family-Friendly Intervention
Winner: Fossil Free London
The ‘Zines Not Screens’ intervention tured an advertising site into a library of local pamphlets.
Political Détournement
Winner: Liverpool crews
Artistic re-working of commercial adverts calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict.
‘Surprise’ Category
Joint winners: Team Badvertising
The protest outside a London advertising agency which makes SUV adverts for Toyota were joint winners.
‘Surprise Category’
Joint winners: Parap-antipub
The para-gliding subvertiser in the French Alps also shared the prize.
Sculpture Category, Winner: Darren Cullen
The Hell Bus in Nigeria was praised for taking the slick advertising imagery of Shell to the front line communities in Nigeria who have been resisting the oil company for decades.
Bonus Category
Winners: XR Lambeth
Judges were impressed with the use of a cargo bicycle to move at speed through the streets of London.
