Stanley Green

Who was Stanley Green?

Stanley Owen Green, known as the Protein Man, was a human billboard who became a well-known figure in central London in the latter half of the 20th century.

For 25 years, from 1968 until 1993, Green patrolled Oxford Street in the West End, carrying a placard that advocated "Less Lust, By Less Protein: Meat Fish Bird; Egg Cheese; Peas Beans; Nuts. And Sitting." Arguing that protein made people lustful and aggressive, his solution was "protein wisdom," a low-protein diet for "better, kinder, happier people." For a few pence passers-by could purchase his 14-page pamphlet, Eight Passion Proteins with Care, which reportedly sold 87,000 copies over 20 years. Its front cover observed that "[t]his booklet would benefit more, if it were read occasionally."

Green became one of London's much-loved eccentrics, though his "campaign to suppress desire," as one commentator put it, was not invariably popular, leading to two arrests for obstruction and the need to wear green overalls to protect himself from spit. He nevertheless took great delight in his local fame. The Sunday Times interviewed him in 1985, and his "less passion, less protein" slogan was used by Red or Dead, the London fashion house.