Toyota attacked by eco-protestors with adverts shaming major brand for 'nefarious' Olympics sponsorship

Despite the zero emission vehicle helping to transport athletes and organisers around Paris for the Olympic preparation, environmental activists have targeted the brand over claims it is "the most polluting sponsor of the Olympic and Paralympic Games".

More than 100 bus stop adverts have been replaced by activists from the Brandalism movement, as well as Paris-based Résistance à l’Agression Publicitaire (Resistance to Advertising Aggression) - which have both previously been responsible for targeting Toyota and oil giant Shell.

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The Olympic Games, which will be officially opened along the River Seine on Friday evening, have been hit with controversy over environmental concerns, with some dubbing it "the hottest Games on record".

The guerilla artworks target the automaker's greenhouse gas emissions, which Brandalism claims are higher than most fossil fuel companies.

Posters were installed on bus stop ad spaces in Paris, Lille, Lyon, Saint-Étienne, Strasbourg and Rennes between Monday, July 22 and Thursday, July 25.

Sonnie Bird from Brandalism said: "With Toyota as a sponsor, the Paris Olympics will leave a legacy not of gold, silver and bronze but of pollution.

“As the world shifts away from fossil fuels, Toyota stubbornly continues to produce millions more oil-powered vehicles every year.

"If Toyota were a country its greenhouse gas emissions would outrank all but eleven of the countries participating in this year's Games, many of which are already on the front lines of climate breakdown.”

One of the artworks, created by ecological artist Michelle Tylicki, depicts a gold medal featuring the Toyota logo dripping in oil, alongside the words: "Toyota, proud to be the most polluting sponsor of the 2024 Olympic Games".

Others include Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night manipulated to include Toyota vehicles with the text: "Art belongs in Paris. Giant polluters do not.”

Currently, Toyota only has one electric car on the UK market - the bZ4X - which starts from £42,860, has an electric range of up to 318 miles and a charging time of around 32 minutes charging from 10 per cent to 80 per cent.

It also has three electric vans on the market, notably the £34,113 Proace City Verso Electric, the £42,988 Proace Verso Electric and the £38,783 Proace Electric.

A spokesperson for the RAP added: "In response to the invasion of public space by the nefarious companies that sponsor the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we have covered up and hijacked advertising billboards in several cities in France.

"The posters we've put up draw attention to the pollution and greenwashing of these brands. We claim the right to respond to their advertising hype and demand an end to the funding of sport by devastating multinationals."

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According to research by the UK-based Badvertising campaign, the combined carbon emissions attributed to the Olympic sponsorship deals of the three most polluting sponsors is the equivalent of eight coal power plants running for one year.

Andrew Simms, from the environmental campaign group, added: "In a summer set to be the hottest on record, our research shows that sponsorship from major polluters like Toyota will add millions more tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere, heating the planet."

GB News has contacted Toyota for a comment.