The world woke up to the news of Hollywood actor James Cromwell gluing his hands on a Starbucks counter. Why? Well, he was protesting against Starbucks's double standards. Though Starbucks agrees that using vegan milk is a big part of the climate change solution, it charges more if a customer were to opt for it.   

LOLActor James Cromwell super glued his hand to a Starbucks counter in order to protest the higher price of vegan milk vs cow milk. pic.twitter.com/etAKCTYn81

Though this may sound like a weird way to protest, it is not the only one. In fact, many people have protested in shocking ways to get attention from the targeted parties. Here are some bizarre protests that have happened all across the globe over the years:

When milk prices fell substantially in Europe in November 2012, thousands of angry milk farmers went out of business. This negatively impacted these farmers since they had to sell the milk at a price below the actual production cost, leading to a dip in finances. Since the parliament did not do much to bail them out of the situation, they gathered at the European Parliament in Brussels to protest.  

Milk attack at Brussels. Photo: AFP

The farmers came to the protest with their cows and tractors, and directed hoses pumping jets of fresh milk at the Brussels Police, who were  guarding the European Parliament.

You might also remember similar incidents that  happened in India in 2017 and 2018  when farmers in Maharashtra went on an indefinite strike and emptied milk vans on the road. The farmers were protesting against the government's inaction on multiple issues like waiving the loan on crops and providing interest-free loans.

Milk protest: Workers of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana spill milk on roads in Maharashtra's Jalna district. Watch this report by @Pkhelkar #ReporterDiary pic.twitter.com/tMS7ONP9gD

Pothole problems are present all over the world, but are addressed differently and quite innovatively in some parts. In 2006, people in  Saskatchewan, Canada , protested against pothole-filled roads by creating a controversial calendar. The calendar had pictures of residents who posed with potholes in different angles. Also, these residents decided to do the photo-shoot partially naked. 

Once the calendar was ready, a particular picture went viral on the news. It was this one. 

3,000 copies of the $20 calendar sold out globally.  

The calendar finally got the attention of their ineffective local government and the road was repaired years later. What happened to the profits from the calendar sale? It was used to build a a community hall in the area. 

There are so many shocking potholes in Barnet I've put together a Barnet pothole calendar featuring of course @ArjunMittra - but also lots of our great @BarnetLabour councillors & candidates inc @RedKaff @RossSHouston @BarryJohnRawlin @EmmaWhysall @anne_clarke @JoshDTapper pic.twitter.com/3N6ok2ru3u

Though the calendar photo-shoot is used even today by many residents across the world, residents in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India held fake religious ceremonies to name potholes in honour of the city’s officials. To embarass them ofcourse.    

In 2014,  Britain changed some legislation  concerning the porn industry. The UK banned a list of 10 sexual acts that would now not be shown in paid-for online pornographic films. Earlier, these regulations were only levied on content produced for hard-copy DVD films sold in sex shops. The new legislation now applied these rules to online porn films too. 

So, what were the restrictions?  Films now would not be able to show acts ranging from aggressive whipping to strangulation, something which is probably quite normal to porn films online. 

Though the relevant government department said that the move was made to crack down on material “harmful to minors”, critics said that online viewers could still watch this kind of content by watching  videos filmed abroad . 

This caused sex workers and campaigners to protest in a weird manner. They gathered at Westminster to take a stand on their sexual freedom and get back at the government. As the government had decided that facesitting was too dangerous to feature on laptops, protesters decided to prove him wrong by sitting on each other’s faces outside the parliament.

Singing of Sit on my face begins...#pornprotest pic.twitter.com/tG0b5NOkL6

In October 2003, divorced dads Jolly Stanesby and Eddie Goreckwi chose the rooftop of London's Royal Courts of Justice to voice their plight. What exactly did they want to bring attention to? As members of a random "Fathers 4 Justice" group, they wanted to bring attention to the plight of fathers in family courts, who never get access to their children in a court battle. 

They made their presence felt using the theatrical tactic of dressing in superhero capes. Also, the men brought with them enough food, bedding, and clothes for an entire week of caped crusading. 

Though none of the men served time for their theatrics, their organisation nearly collapsed in 2006 when authorities found that several of the group's members were planning to kidnap the 5-year-old son of then Prime Minister Tony Blair.

When you want to  complain against your country's  dirty politics, what exactly do you do? In Peru, people washed their national flag. To protest against President Alberto Fujimori's re-election campaign in 2000, residents in Lima gathered for months to "wash" the country's flag that they believed was tarnished by "dirty" politics. 

(Fujimori was accused of abusing his power and using violent tactics to crush his opposition.)

When a video showing one of Fujimori's allies bribing a legislator went public, the President was forced to flee Peru for Toyko, Japan.

In 2010, Bilin, a place now in Palestine, witnessed many Palestinians, Israeli activists, and Europeans protesting against a separation barrier in the West Bank. Though Israelis call this barrier the ‘security fence’, Palestinians refer to it as the ‘racial segregation wall’. Since a section of the barrier that runs through Bilin separates the villagers from their farming land, the town’s villagers and their political supporters started protesting against the Israeli court system, dressed as characters from the movie. 

Which of these protests caught your attention? 

Akshata Kamath is a Digital Storyteller at DailyO. She loves to simplify Finance, Business, Healing and History.