Not enough poetry

You likely aren't familiar with the latest French addition to the culture jamming lexicon: barbouilleurs. Literally translated as "scribblers", this is the nom de guerre given to activists in France's growing legion of cultural revolutionaries. It all began in October of 2003 when people began painting slogans like "Advertising Kills" and "Too many things, not enough poetry" on billboards and public transit signs across Paris. In one case, a photo of Salvador Dali was plastered over an ad. The city's rapid transit agency, RATP, tried to stem the tide by opening up a handful of billboards to "free expression" for a period of a whopping ten days. But it was a token effort in the shadow of legal proceedings that RATP and Métrobus, the company responsible for the ads, had launched to recoup 922,000 Euros in damage costs from 62 of the commando graffiti artists caught redhanded. The French public, however, chose to back the freedom of expression fighters, some of whom escaped punishment using the argument that the ads were already covered in graffitti by the time they got around to defacing them. As a result, there was no shortage of sympathizers lining up to help defray the costs of the nine defendants who were eventually convicted and forced to pay between 400 Euros and 2,000 Euros in fine. Métrobus president Gérard Unger called it a victory, but it was clear the advertising industry has suffered a major setback. Who says the French always give up without a fight?