The Doomed Ads in Pandemic-Era Paris

And other messages that Covid-19 subverted in 2020

The words 'Silence is not enough' feature on a poster in an almost deserted metro station for A Quiet Place Part II, a film which wasn't screening anywhere as cinemas were out of bounds (Photo by William Sidnam)

When the world was plunged into hibernation at the start of the 2020s, there was a sense that everything had changed forever. But at the beginning of what some were calling the 'New Normal', what surprised me most weren't so much the abrupt shifts in the world around me, but rather, what had remained in place.

After emerging from Paris' two-month-long lockdown in early May, I was amused to come across a fair few advertising posters that had aged like milk. Due to the French government forbidding large indoor gatherings and placing severe restrictions on dining and entertainment spaces, a lot of the shows, events and festivals displayed on posters were either no longer able to go ahead or never went ahead at all.