Was a "No Incels" poster that appeared at a bus shelter in New York City an official ad for the social network Bluesky? No, that's not true: The poster was not a paid ad, the contractor that manages city bus shelter advertising told Lead Stories. The poster was placed there by "a person who had no authority to post anything," the contractor's statement said.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on December 7, 2024. It said:
This is a Bluesky ad
The image in the entry showed a poster that read:
No Incels.
Bluesky.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Dec 24 17:26:59 2024 UTC)
Bluesky (archived here) is a microblogging service that was initially conceived in 2019 within X (archived here), then still known as Twitter, but in 2024 competed with it (archived here).
The poster in question used the online term "incel" defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary (archived here) as "a person (usually a man) who regards himself or herself as being involuntarily celibate and typically expresses extreme resentment and hostility toward those who are sexually active."
Reverse image searches led to other images showing the same banner. Some displayed a company's name above the bus shelter's ad space: JCDecaux (archived here), an outdoor advertising agency.
The New York City Department of Transportation, whose authority covers bus shelter advertising, told Lead Stories on December 24, 2024, via email that JCDecaux is its contractor that manages that type of ads.
On December 26, 2024, JCDecaux replied to a Lead Stories inquiry via email:
This is not an authorized posting nor did anyone pay for the space. It is an unauthorized posting by a person who had no authority to post anything. The print appeared in real life, i.e., it is an accurate depiction of what appeared in the public prior to our team viewing it and removing it.
On December 8, 2024, one day after the claim this fact check focuses on appeared on X, a variation of the poster (archived here), placed on what appeared to be a paling fence surrounding a construction site, was published on Instagram by the account of street artist Winston Tseng. His post's caption read:
social media (dis)engagement.
The same post included another image of the "No Incels" poster seen, as geolocated by Lead Stories, at this bus shelter (archived here) at the intersection of East 9th Street and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan (archived here). That was the same location where the photo that is the focus of this fact check was taken: It displays the letters "J.Bacz" at the middle of the left side. Google Maps (archived here) shows a store sign saying "J. Baczynsky" just behind the same bus shelter.
The artist's website (archived here) says that he "uses brands and advertising to communicate societal issues." On December 20, 2024, Tseng referred to a series of his images featuring the Bluesky logo as "parody ads" in conversation with AFP (archived here), which also reviewed the same claim.
Earlier, in September 2024, another work by the same artist was mistaken for the authentic Philadelphia Eagles' endorsement of Kamala Harris for president, which was debunked by Lead Stories here.
Lead Stories reached out to Tseng and Bluesky for additional comments and will include their response when they write back.
Besides AFP, Reuters and CheckYourFact reviewed the same claim about "No Incels" posters in New York City
Other Lead Stories fact checks concerning events in the U.S. can be found here.
