The viral Rishi Sunak billboard is back – and this time it’s running for real

Now, Ben Golik’s ‘lest we forget’ mock-up is finally seeing the light of day, officially appearing on poster sites in Manchester and London as the UK election race enters its final stages.

In June, The Drum exclusively revealed the story behind the Uncommon creative partner’s widely shared poster, created in response to Rishi Sunak’s fateful decision to leave the 80th-anniversary commemoration of D-Day early.

Despite what some may have assumed, Golik’s mock-up wasn’t affiliated with any political party and didn’t initially run in the real world. Instead, he dreamt up the ad independently and used an AI image generator to create a picture of a running Rishi before sharing it online to much acclaim.

Now, the ad has officially appeared on sites in London and Manchester with the assistance of media planning and buying from Craft Media and Goodstuff, and street advertising specialists Jack, part of BuildHollywood.

Golik said that although he had been approached by various political parties, which he won’t disclose, wishing to appropriate the work, the decision was made to keep the ad unbranded as an unendorsed comment on the prime minister’s character.

“The people’s poster has become a real poster, and the meme has made it to the streets,” Golik said today (pictured below)

Three of the sites are within the Chelsea and Fulham constituency, which is currently a Conservative seat. One site came down the day it went up due to a landlord request.

On the project, Uncommon’s co-founder Nils Leonard added: “We created this studio to play a part in the most important and influential moments of our time. Sometimes we do that with clients, sometimes we do it for ourselves.”