Stop Esso emerged from Banksy’s involvement in Greenpeace’s 2001 campaign against Esso (ExxonMobil). While the campaign highlighted the corporation’s environmental record, Banksy expanded the critique to expose the paradox between the desire to protect nature and the persistence of unsustainable lifestyles.

By using corporate branding as a target, the work satirises the futility of blaming oil companies in isolation. Banksy likened it to “testing a gas pipe for leaks by lighting a match”—a metaphor pointing to consumer complicity in environmental decline. The piece highlights the interconnectedness of ecological crisis, corporate power, and the choices of everyday consumers.