Residents in Holloway have expressed their confusion and concern after a mysterious billboard encouraging Londoners to “get sterilised” appeared on Liverpool Road last Wednesday.
The advert, which was taken down the next day, read “Imagine a city less crowded… do your part, get sterilised! Yay!”, over a pale blue background. The text was surrounded by cartoon illustrations of children playing, wearing t-shirts with slogans such as “no more sperm”.
It is not clear who installed or removed the poster in Holloway, and it was not obviously linked to a group or advertising agency.
Camille, manager of the Victoria Tavern, a pub opposite, said the billboard was “there one day and gone the next” and that she hadn’t seen anyone working on the site.
Despite its “scary” message, she added that it had “definitely got everyone talking”.
Local resident José Puerta said it “looked like a poster you’d see in a satirical dystopian film”.
The poster has prompted discussion online, with one user branding the lack of black and brown figures on the billboard as “nothing but racism” against white people.
It also caught the attention of former BNP leader Nick Griffin, who tweeted his criticism of the poster’s “conspicuous lack of #diversity” and “anti-natalist” message.
A correction was made to the board, changing a spelling from “crowed” to “crowded”, before it was replaced with a poster advertising the William Blake exhibition at the Tate.
