This tactic summary describes banner hangs, which involve hanging large banners to communicate messages. Common uses are to articulate demands, rebrand targets, or provide frames for actions. Practitioners include the Ruckus Society, Greenpeace, and Rainforest Action Network. Banner hangs can be low-tech using bedsheets on overpasses or more complex using climbers to hang large banners at heights. Effective banner hangs have clear goals and communicate concise messages or directly disrupt business as usual through blockades. They aim to educate the public and draw attention to issues. Potential pitfalls include safety risks if proper training and gear are not used.
This tactic summary describes banner hangs, which involve hanging large banners to communicate messages. Common uses are to articulate demands, rebrand targets, or provide frames for actions. Practitioners include the Ruckus Society, Greenpeace, and Rainforest Action Network. Banner hangs can be low-tech using bedsheets on overpasses or more complex using climbers to hang large banners at heights. Effective banner hangs have clear goals and communicate concise messages or directly disrupt business as usual through blockades. They aim to educate the public and draw attention to issues. Potential pitfalls include safety risks if proper training and gear are not used.
This tactic summary describes banner hangs, which involve hanging large banners to communicate messages. Common uses are to articulate demands, rebrand targets, or provide frames for actions. Practitioners include the Ruckus Society, Greenpeace, and Rainforest Action Network. Banner hangs can be low-tech using bedsheets on overpasses or more complex using climbers to hang large banners at heights. Effective banner hangs have clear goals and communicate concise messages or directly disrupt business as usual through blockades. They aim to educate the public and draw attention to issues. Potential pitfalls include safety risks if proper training and gear are not used.
This tactic summary describes banner hangs, which involve hanging large banners to communicate messages. Common uses are to articulate demands, rebrand targets, or provide frames for actions. Practitioners include the Ruckus Society, Greenpeace, and Rainforest Action Network. Banner hangs can be low-tech using bedsheets on overpasses or more complex using climbers to hang large banners at heights. Effective banner hangs have clear goals and communicate concise messages or directly disrupt business as usual through blockades. They aim to educate the public and draw attention to issues. Potential pitfalls include safety risks if proper training and gear are not used.
Banner hang COMMON USES To boldly articulate a demand; to rebrand a target; to provide a message frame or larger- than-life caption for an action.
PRACTITIONERS Ruckus Society Greenpeace Rainforest Action Network
FURTHER INSIGHT The Ruckus Society, Balloon Banner Manual http://ruckus.org/article.php?id=364 Tree Climbing Astoria Bridge Nuclear Free Seas Banner Blockade. Greenpeace climbers hang from the Astoria-Megler Bridge over the http://trb.la/xa9dGu Columbia River in Oregon to protest and block the arrival of the nuclear warship USS New Jersey. 1990. Photo by James Perez.
Destructables, Banner Drops
What better way to air the dirty laundry of an irresponsible http://Destructables.org/node/56 institution than to hang a giant banner over its front door? A Destructables, Banner Hoist banner drop can also be an effective way to frame or contextualize http://Destructables.org/node/57 an upcoming event or protest see TACTIC: Reframe. Banner hangs Steal This Wiki, Banners http://wiki.stealthiswiki.org/wiki/Banners can also function as public service announcements to alert the public of an injustice or a dangerous situation. Freeway Blogger http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/ Banner hangs can be as low-tech and low-risk as several bedsheets tied to road overpasses decrying the Iraq War, but CONTRIBUTED BY the ones that really pack a punch involve large pieces of cloth or Nadine Bloch netting deployed at great heights, often by experienced climbers. Regardless of the level of risk or complexity, all effective ban- ner hangs start with a clear goal (you have a goal, right?!), and fall into two broad categories: communicative (concise protest state- ments), and concrete (blockade elements that directly disrupt busi- ness as usual) see PRINCIPLE: Make your actions both concrete and communicative. In 1991, in a great example of a banner hang with a concrete goal, small communities in the Pacific Northwest asked for help to stop nuclear warships from entering Clatsop County, Oregon, a designated nuclear-free zone on the Columbia River. An enormous net banner was deployed from the Astoria Bridge, affixed below the span where it would be difficult to remove, and weighted by the climbers bodies themselves. The action
12 TACTIC: Banner Hang
succeeded in delaying the warships entrance while educating Related: the area on the issue. Most banner hangs, however, tend to be communicative. TACTICS Guerrilla projections p. 52 Take, for instance, the banner hung from a crane in downtown Giant props web Seattle in November 1999 see CASE: Battle in Seattle just before the Media-jacking p. 72 opening of the World Trade Organization meeting. The ban- Dtournement/Culture jamming p. 28 ner messaging was as clear as day: an iconic visual of a street sign with arrows pointing in opposite directions: democracy this THEORIES Points of intervention p. 250 way, WTO that way. This was a classic framing action. Hung on Ethical spectacle p. 230 the eve of a big summit meeting and a huge protest, the banner Framing web made it clear what all the fuss to come was really about: a basic struggle of right and wrong; the People vs. WTO. CASE STUDIES When there is no crane, bridge or building to hang your ban- Battle in Seattle p. 286
ner from, large helium-filled weather balloons have been used
to raise everything from CODEPINKs pink slip for President George Bush in front of the White House to a banner deployed from a houseboat on the East River in New York with a message for the UN. Smaller balloons have been used to raise banners indoors in the atriums of malls or corporate or government buildings.
POTENTIAL PITFALLS: If the banner hang requires specific climbing
skills or tools, do not skimp on training, scouting, or the quality of gear. Cutting corners could result in the banner snagging, the team being detained before the banner drops, or someone get- ting seriously injured or killed. Pay attention to changing weather conditions that could turn a proverbial walk in the park into a life- threatening situation see PRINCIPLE: Take risks, but take care. Also, make sure that lighting, lettering, height of building and other factors are taken into account to ensure a readable banner.
SAY IT WITH PROPS: If its worth saying, its worth saying loudly! KEY PRINCIPLE If its worth doing, its worth doing boldly! What better way to at work put your message out there, than to spell it out in twelve-foot- high letters? OTHER PRINCIPLES AT WORK: Take risks, but take care p. 182 Reframe p. 168 Everyone has balls/ovaries of steel p. 136 Do the medias work for them p. 124 Show, dont tell p. 174 Make your actions both concrete and communicative p. 154
