A guerrilla poster campaign against Jeff Bezos at the Met Gala hits New York

New York - Posters have appeared on the streets and subways of New York calling for a boycott of the Met Gala, scheduled for May 4, due to Jeff Bezos' involvement in its organisation.

The choice of the Amazon founder, who has grown closer to Donald Trump, and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos as sponsors and honorary chairs is “a total lack of tact”, lamented a spokesperson for the collective behind this guerrilla campaign, Everyone Hates Elon.

One of the visuals shows a bottle filled with urine on a red carpet. This is a reference to the company's admission that some of its drivers are sometimes forced to urinate in bottles due to a lack of toilets. Another depicts Mr. Bezos in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uniform, with which Amazon's cloud computing subsidiary has a contract.

Further actions are planned in the run-up to the event. Founded in the UK in 2025 to counter Elon Musk's far-right rhetoric, Everyone Hates Elon “also targets other billionaires”, explained the group's spokesperson, who requested anonymity.

These activists notably unfurled a banner calling on Mr. Bezos to “pay more taxes” during his wedding in Venice. They also hung a photo of the former Prince Andrew, implicated for his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Louvre.

The group claims to have received over 14,000 pounds sterling to fund its New York campaign. “Almost 1,000 people have donated, with an average of about 10 pounds,” its spokesperson specified.

“These are people from all over the world who are angry... ordinary people who want to do something concrete, to express themselves at a time when things can seem really depressing,” she believes. “I think it responds to a need people have to stand up against some of those who control our lives.”

Questioned by CNN in November about the controversial involvement of the Bezos couple in the Met Gala, its president, fashion mogul Anna Wintour, praised the “incredible generosity” of Lauren Sanchez Bezos, a “great lover of fashion”.

The 2026 edition is co-chaired by singer Beyoncé, actress Nicole Kidman and former world number one tennis player Venus Williams. New York's new socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani will not be attending. The event funds the fashion department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is launching an exhibition titled “Costume Art”, questioning the place of the body and clothing in art history.