Mystery billboard ads tell people to imagine ‘London without gays’
A Pride festival appears to be behind a mystery ad campaign that is being pushed online and on London billboards.
The campaign was noticed today when several keen-eyed commuters noticed a series of electronic billboards bearing the message in the UK capital.
This ad is facing our office – it shows an empty London saying “imagine London without gays…” Can anyone explain?! pic.twitter.com/5M6nwZRa7D
— Rob Bullock (@R_jbullock) April 18, 2016
The billboards, spotted around the Waterloo area, features an image of Big Ben with the text ‘Imagine London Without Gays’ in black-and-white.
At the same time, an online ad campaign has been launched – with Facebook showing a promoted page titled ‘World Without Gays’ to thousands of people – appearing to target LGBT users.
The linked website flicks through pictures of several major cities, saying: “Imagine Berlin Without Gays. Imagine Madrid without Gays. Imagine London Without Gays. Imagine a World Without Gays. Coming Soon.”
The project’s web domain was only registered last month.
It is unclear what purpose the ads are meant to serve – but billboard owners JCDecaux insists it’s nothing homophobic.
When pushed further, they said it was “part of a campaign for the Tel Aviv Pride Parade 2016” – which ruins the surprise somewhat.
