Wacky political protests that grabbed the world's attention

From naked ‘potholing’ to sitting on faces or spraying police with milk, some groups stop at nothing to get their point across to as many as possible

The naked potholers

One man in Saskatchewan, Canada, managed to round up 11 other individuals who felt passionately enough about potholes to take their clothes off. The group agreed to pose naked in various positions inside the holes that lined local roads, and made a calendar out of the pictures. The calendars sold well, plus a picture of one naked resident in a canoe on the main road in the town went viral, and the residents finally got the attention of their ineffective local government.

The face sitters

After David Cameron threatened to legislate against what kind of porn the UK could watch, people came out to demonstrate for sexual freedom. The Conservatives decided that face sitting was too dangerous to feature on laptops when our bedroom doors are locked, so hundreds of people decided to prove him wrong by sitting on each other’s faces outside parliament while singing tunes from Monty Python.

The duct-taped kid

When a school in Connecticut decided to enforce a “no touching” policy between students that precluded hugging and high fives, eighth-grader Patrick Abbazia went to classes wrapped up in duct tape to protest. He lasted until lunch. Good show, Patrick.

The Lobster Empathy Centre

Animal rights campaign group Peta is well known for strange acts of protest but one of its weirdest was establishing a Lobster Empathy Centre in an old prison building in Maine, which it had bought for $200,000. The group, which refers to fish as “sea kittens”, were attempting to introduce families to the suffering of lobsters up close, by wrapping visitors’ hands in rubber bands and giving children stuffed lobster toys that bore the slogan “Lobsters are friends, not food”. The aim was to guilt-trip them out of ordering crustaceans at restaurants in the lobster-eating capital of America.

The class sheep

After a school in Saint-Nazaire, France, had its 12th classroom closed by authorities for being one pupil short, parents occupied the school and teachers registered a small black sheep as their 287th pupil to protest the decision. The sheep, named Vincent P, was given a school bag and lunch by students while their parents were inside.

The udder attack

When milk prices fell substantially, EU milk farmers protested against their sudden dip in finances by taking cows along to a protest, squirting Brussels police with fresh milk as officers tried to move them along.

The knitted uterus

When Republican politicians began speaking up against US family planning and making noises about banning abortion, news spread across the internet. Senator Ryan McDougle’s Facebook page was targeted by women asking for period advice, and Texas governor Rick Perry was sent hand-knitted and crocheted uteruses through the mail.

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