This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/shortcuts/2013/jun/07/bilderberg-cctv-camera-best-protest-costume
The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Previous version
1
Next version
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Bilderberg: is a CCTV camera on your head the best protest costume ever? | Bilderberg: is a CCTV camera on your head the best protest costume ever? |
| (4 months later) | |
| Regardless of what the shadowy puppeteers of the Bilderberg Group decide to implement at their conference in Watford this week – perhaps they'll agree to start a war or two, or prolong the inexplicable television career of Piers Morgan – they've already lost the publicity war. The most memorable imagery of the conference isn't that of the blacked-out limousines swooping silently past security checkpoints, or the lines of police officers vigilantly maintaining a ring of steel around the conference hotel. It's of protester Steve Jolly standing around with a great big CCTV camera on his head. | Regardless of what the shadowy puppeteers of the Bilderberg Group decide to implement at their conference in Watford this week – perhaps they'll agree to start a war or two, or prolong the inexplicable television career of Piers Morgan – they've already lost the publicity war. The most memorable imagery of the conference isn't that of the blacked-out limousines swooping silently past security checkpoints, or the lines of police officers vigilantly maintaining a ring of steel around the conference hotel. It's of protester Steve Jolly standing around with a great big CCTV camera on his head. |
| Jolly's dedication is as impressive as it is fruitless. It's not as if Eric Schmidt will ever catch a glimpse of him and think: "Hey, a man with a giant cardboard camera on his head. This must mean I'm essentially evil. Quick – smash all the Google Glasses!" But the commitment of his costume deserves an ovation. Every night, Jolly must return home, his shoulders aching and his peripheral vision all out of whack, knowing that he's done more than anyone – even Judd Charlton and his terrifying anti-corporation ventriloquist dummy – to register his protest. | Jolly's dedication is as impressive as it is fruitless. It's not as if Eric Schmidt will ever catch a glimpse of him and think: "Hey, a man with a giant cardboard camera on his head. This must mean I'm essentially evil. Quick – smash all the Google Glasses!" But the commitment of his costume deserves an ovation. Every night, Jolly must return home, his shoulders aching and his peripheral vision all out of whack, knowing that he's done more than anyone – even Judd Charlton and his terrifying anti-corporation ventriloquist dummy – to register his protest. |
| The message seems to be clear – if you want to get your message across, wear something brightly coloured and impractical. Here are some more of my favourites: | The message seems to be clear – if you want to get your message across, wear something brightly coloured and impractical. Here are some more of my favourites: |
| Badger | Badger |
| The resistance to the proposed badger cull has done its best to infiltrate the public consciousness – lord knows that Brian May gave it his best shot – but would anyone really be as invested if it wasn't for the photo of the woman dressed as a badger sitting on a bench outside the House of Commons nattering to Virginia McKenna from the Born Free foundation this week? Would they really? | The resistance to the proposed badger cull has done its best to infiltrate the public consciousness – lord knows that Brian May gave it his best shot – but would anyone really be as invested if it wasn't for the photo of the woman dressed as a badger sitting on a bench outside the House of Commons nattering to Virginia McKenna from the Born Free foundation this week? Would they really? |
| Bee | Bee |
| On the surface of it, dressing up as Winnie the Pooh would do little to bring the debate over bee-harming pesticides to a wider audience. But their genius was to strap a "Where is my honey?" thought bubble to the side of their head. Now we know what Winnie the Pooh thinks about the issue. He's hungry. He's confused. He's probably quite warm, although that much wasn't as explicitly vocalised. | On the surface of it, dressing up as Winnie the Pooh would do little to bring the debate over bee-harming pesticides to a wider audience. But their genius was to strap a "Where is my honey?" thought bubble to the side of their head. Now we know what Winnie the Pooh thinks about the issue. He's hungry. He's confused. He's probably quite warm, although that much wasn't as explicitly vocalised. |
| Polar bear | Polar bear |
| The key to a successful protest costume, it seems, is to maintain your sense of the ridiculous. Any angry idiot can go and throw a brick through someone's window, but they won't be taken seriously until they dress up as a polar bear and dance around a petrol station, as Greenpeace did in Scotland. | The key to a successful protest costume, it seems, is to maintain your sense of the ridiculous. Any angry idiot can go and throw a brick through someone's window, but they won't be taken seriously until they dress up as a polar bear and dance around a petrol station, as Greenpeace did in Scotland. |
| Fathers 4 Justice | Fathers 4 Justice |
| Equally, there's something enduringly poetic about Fathers 4 Justice's attempts to draw attention to their cause by dressing up as superheroes and jigging around on famous landmarks, the one thing guaranteed to make their offspring burn up with shame and mutter "Daaaaad" while they stare at their phone and silently brace themselves for their next playground beating. | Equally, there's something enduringly poetic about Fathers 4 Justice's attempts to draw attention to their cause by dressing up as superheroes and jigging around on famous landmarks, the one thing guaranteed to make their offspring burn up with shame and mutter "Daaaaad" while they stare at their phone and silently brace themselves for their next playground beating. |
| Peta | Peta |
| Peta is probably the gold standard of protest costumes. No matter what the cause, they're ready to mobilise at the drop of a hat and fill the streets with cows or rabbits or tampons or puppies smoking giant cigarettes. And then, when that starts to get old, they'll zig when you expect them to zag and use somebody wearing absolutely no costume whatsoever. It's a work of genius. | Peta is probably the gold standard of protest costumes. No matter what the cause, they're ready to mobilise at the drop of a hat and fill the streets with cows or rabbits or tampons or puppies smoking giant cigarettes. And then, when that starts to get old, they'll zig when you expect them to zag and use somebody wearing absolutely no costume whatsoever. It's a work of genius. |
| Avatar | Avatar |
| But there's a line that you don't cross. Sometimes a fancy dress animal costume is enough to bring attention to a cause. But sometimes, things are simply too serious – as these Palestinians found as they tried to highlight their struggle by dressing up as the cast of Avatar. Try as they might, they solved nothing. Note to Steve Jolly: don't take your camera hat to the Middle East. | But there's a line that you don't cross. Sometimes a fancy dress animal costume is enough to bring attention to a cause. But sometimes, things are simply too serious – as these Palestinians found as they tried to highlight their struggle by dressing up as the cast of Avatar. Try as they might, they solved nothing. Note to Steve Jolly: don't take your camera hat to the Middle East. |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. | Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |
Previous version
1
Next version