After two activists from the United Kingdom climate awareness group Just Stop Oil threw soup at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” Oct. 14, 2022 at the National Gallery in London and glued themselves to the wall, the same group targeted the painting yet again Sept. 27 despite the first two activists being sentenced to jail an hour before.

The group’s efforts are performative at best, attracting more attention to themselves and their hyperfixation on making a spectacle out of a van Gogh, whose wavy artwork already looks like soup swirled around, rather than pointing to the direction of their message.

Looking past the odd focus on van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” which may have something to do with oil poisoning the planet’s natural world — but even that connection is flimsy at best — the soup itself does nothing. The painting is protected by glass that stops the soup from seeping into the artwork, only ruining the frame.

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At the end of the day, they look like amateur vandals without a cause. If it weren’t for their t-shirts and shouting, nothing about their demonstration would have anything to do with oil or the environment. For the sake of momentary coverage over a wider issue that only affects the participants going to jail, Just Stop Oil puts a bad stain on other groups taking traditional steps such as lobbying, rather than the indirect action they continue to take.

Among the few redeeming factors of the group besides its anti-oil message is the peacefulness of its demonstrations. However, Just Stop Oil’s harmless acts come off more like children in a kindergarten art class than an organized group with a clear vision. Its plan makes even less sense since they chose to target a museum free for general admission with well-known paintings in the hope that it would garner international attention.

While the group is right to think anything that happens to a vVan Gogh would gain more eyes on them than a piece part of a rich person’s private collection, it ruins the experience for everyday people visiting the museum. Admittedly, the brief disruption to a random person’s day is inconsequential compared to increased fossil fuel emissions.

However, if the demonstrations are already expected to be short despite the purpose of raising awareness over the climate crisis, the back-and-forth between authorities moves the conversation towards the harsh sentences of the activists rather than their original intentions.

Aside from the soup throwing and disruption of the 2022 BAFTA Film Awards ceremony, Just Stop Oil also resorted to blocking oil terminals in the U.K. throughout 2022, with many of the protestors being arrested and sent to prison. Compared to these demonstrations, the “Sunflowers” incidents are a footnote to the group’s previous actions that directly challenged the oil companies behind increased fossil fuel emissions.

In the context of other methods meant to address the climate crisis, the Just Stop Oil efforts are the off-off-Broadway distraction that gets traction for about a week before everyone forgets what the story was all about. During that limited 15 minutes of fame, no one benefited from the acts, including the more than 3,000 Just Stop Oil members arrested since its founding in 2022.

Given the short amount of time that the protestors had before being handcuffed, the climate crisis deserves more time than the type of stunt reserved for a middle school demonstration. In 2023 alone, global fossil fuel use rose 1.5%, a new high. As fossil fuel numbers increased, the global temperature increase reached 1.5 degrees Celsius, leading to a higher likelihood of disasters such as drought and flooding.

What Just Stop Oil aims to do is admirable — applaudable even. However, the way they go about spreading concern over the climate crisis falls short every time, pleading for an international audience to stop and look at them as the world burns in real time.