Civil Society Campaign - Stunts and Actions

Stunts and Actions

While civil society campaigners may come from a range of political backgrounds, modern campaigning owes its largest debt to the ideas of the Situationists, such as Guy Debord, who recognised that as society falls increasingly under the thrall of the spectacle, it is impossible to generate political momentum without existing in the visual plane. A frequent tactic of civil society campaigns is thus the deployment of high profile stunts and actions to draw attention to their cause. An example of a stunt is the group Fathers4Justice dressing as popular superheroes and scaling tall buildings to draw attention to their cause. The occupation of the Brent Spar platform by Greenpeace to prevent Shell dumping it at sea was an action rather than a stunt as it had intrinsic influence as well as generating publicity.