10 Ways To Make A Bigger Splash In Your Next Protest

You say you want a revolution, well... be inspired by these creative, playful tactics from Beautiful Trouble: Toolbox for Revolution. As Dr. King once said, "Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”

1. Advanced Leafleting

Cartoon Network

If you’re doing standard leafleting, you’re wasting everybody’s time and a lot of paper. Make it fun! Make it unusual! Make it memorable! Don’t just hand out leaflets. Climb up on some guy’s shoulders and hand out leaflets from there. The shareholder heading into a meeting is more likely to take, read and remember the custom message inside the fortune cookie you just handed her than a rectangle of paper packed with text.

2. Banner Hang

Greenpeace / Via beautifultrouble.org

Banner hangs can be as low-tech and low-risk as several bedsheets tied to road overpasses decrying the Iraq War, but the ones that really pack a punch involve large pieces of cloth or netting deployed at great heights. Communicative and concrete - these actions are sure to get your message across loud and clear.

Turn it up a notch: This protest against the Iranian President who was visiting France featured a banner hang which included a nude activist who appeared to be hanging by a noose to represent the 800 executions ordered annually in Iran.

3. Creative Disruption

If a war criminal like Dick Cheney or a corporate criminal like former BP CEO Tony Hayward comes to town, what’s the best way to challenge the spin they’ll put on their misdeeds? You could wait in line for Q&A, or.... Skip the dialogue and go straight to disruption. Remember: the audience is likely on their side, so do your message some justice and shut down or seriously disrupt the event, in a thoughtful and memorable way. Consider carrying a sign or a banner to communicate your message, or try interrupting with a song. And don't forget a film crew - these stunts are totally meme worthy.

4. Blockade

Emily Chang / Via sfbay.ca

Is 'business as usual' failing you? Shut. It. Down. Putting your body on the line to disrupt the natural order communicates urgency and a demand for immediate response. There are many ways to go about this - don’t think in terms of less or more radical; think in terms of what is appropriate to your goals, strategy, tone, message, risk, and level of escalation.

5. Flashmob

Eric Preston / Via youtube.com

This participatory performance art has been harnessed by activists to create spontaneous mass actions on short notice. The overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt involved flash-mob-like tactics, with organizers calling for protesters to gather initially in alleys and other protected spaces for safety before moving into the streets in larger and larger numbers. In DC, activists took on the asinine rule that there was no dancing in the Jefferson Memorial by organizing a dance-in flashmob. Needless to say, Emma Goldman would be all over this tactic.

6. Guerrilla Projection

This Changes Everything

Projections help us upend the power dynamic. The buildings of the powerful can feel so big and our voices and protest signs so small. But when a huge “99%” bat signal lights up the night sky, or a film on Climate Change is projected onto an oil refinery, it begins to level the playing field. Small voices are writ large.

7. Human Banner

John Montgomery / Via humanbannersf.com

A human banner can be spur of the moment — a milling crowd can be quickly arranged and photographed from a nearby building or lamppost — but conscientious planning can produce staggering works of aerial art.

Side note: According to research, a world record has yet to be set for the most people participating in a Human Banner. Just saying...

8. Light Brigade

Joe Brusky / Via Flickr: 40969298@N05

Imagine you’re at a nighttime vigil to protest the latest looming war. Candles are lit, speakers share eloquent messages, and suddenly, from a nearby rise overlooking the public square where you’ve gathered, the words WORK FOR PEACE light up the night, each letter several feet tall and swaying independently of the others, because each letter is held up by a different person. This is a Light Brigade in action.

Want more? Check out the work of the DC Light Brigade.

9. Media Jacking

Your opponent probably has a much bigger PR budget and name-brand draw to attract press to cover their events. Use that to your advantage. A well-planned creative intervention can not only commandeer media attention, but can flip the event on its head entirely.

Take it to the next level: Consider what a hoax may do to further detract from your target's narrative.

10. Trek

Via beautifultrouble.org

People’s resistance stories are full of walks, treks, sea voyages and even flights. Over the millennia of human existence, entire communities have packed up and voted with their feet, moving away from untenable situations to more fertile lands. In the last century, extended marches have been used broadly and strategically as a platform for outreach and mobilization, and as a visible expression of issues.

“The path is made by walking." - Antonio Machado

Ready to step up? On April 2nd, thousands will begin a 10-day, 140-mile march from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, PA to the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. to get money out of politics!

This piece was curated using content from Beautiful Trouble: Toolbox for Revolution. Beautiful Trouble is a book, web toolbox and international network of artist-activist trainers whose mission is to make grassroots movements more creative and more effective.