Led By Donkeys

Led By Donkeys

Established	10 July 2019  (5 years ago)
Founders	Ben John Stewart, James Sadri, William Rose, Oliver Knowles
Types	organization
Purpose	Anti-Brexit media campaign
Country	United Kingdom
Region served	UK
Chairpersons	Oliver Knowles Will Rose James Sadri Ben Stewart
Website	twitter.com/bydonkeys

Led By Donkeys is a British political campaign group, established in December 2018 as an anti-Brexit group, but which has also criticised other actions of the Conservative government. Since the group's creation its four founders have been calling out what they call "thermonuclear hypocrisy" and used satire targeted at pro-Brexit politicians. Led By Donkeys' main campaign consists of billboards containing past tweets by pro-Brexit politicians, or quotes presented as tweets. These tweets state the politicians' previous political positions, which according to the group have not stood the test of time.

The campaign was initially run as a guerilla operation, in which Led By Donkeys posters were plastered over existing adverts. It was then expanded into a crowdfunded campaign that legitimately purchased advertising space on hundreds of billboards across the UK. Later the group staged real-life stunts, including projecting messages on iconic places such as the Houses of Parliament and the White Cliffs of Dover, carving giant messages on beaches and fields, and directing crowds to unfurl huge flags at pro-European Union marches. Videos of these messages were subsequently viewed millions of times on social media. The campaign group won the award for Best Social Media Campaign in the 2019 Social Purpose Awards, and won gold in the National Social Impact category in the 2020 Outdoor Media Awards.

The name Led By Donkeys comes from the phrase "Lions led by donkeys", referring to the belief that British soldiers in the First World War were led to their deaths by incompetent and indifferent leaders.