This blog originally appeared as a newsletter. If you’d like to receive updates from Adfree Cities as they happen, including monthly newsletters and special updates, you can sign up here.
This month we’re trying out a new newsletter format. We have one main news item for you and links to further reading and actions. Let us know how it looks and whether it works for you.
Let’s face it, advertisers aren’t going to do the right thing all by themselves. That’s why we need to see national policies to end harmful advertising, action from local authorities to limit the advertising we are exposed to in our towns and cities, and stronger advertising regulation to prevent misleading and irresponsible claims being made. We’re excited to be working on all these areas, and seeing progress! So, this month we bring you a special Party Conference Season and Policy Round-up, as well as plenty of actions you can take right now.
As always, the best way we can spread the word about what we do is by you sharing this newsletter. If you know someone you think would enjoy this email, please share it with them and encourage them to sign up.
Stay Updated with Adfree Cities
Changing political winds
More and more policymakers are turning their attention to advertising’s role in the most pressing issues of the moment, from climate change to public health. However, there is still a long way to go for government to join the dots.
There was good news earlier in the month as the government committed to end junk food advertising on TV before the 9pm watershed, but they failed to act on junk food ads on billboards – a missed opportunity to protect children’s health.
This week, we were thrilled to learn the news that nine UK mayoral combined authorities have committed to end junk food advertising on public transport! Well done to all the campaigners involved.
There was also news that Liverpool City Council passed a motion to ban junk food ads from council-owned ad sites across the city. A fantastic move, although we were disappointed that earlier commitments to ban high carbon advertising failed to pass with the motion.
Party conference season
It was into these changing winds that Adfree Cities boldly sailed as we attended not one but two party conferences this month. First, Chloe and Nicola travelled to Manchester to host a panel at the Green Party Conference fringe. Our event, ‘Our Space not Ad Space: reclaiming public space from harmful advertising’, covered the psychological damage of advertising, the limitations of the current regulating authority, and how councils and communities can fight back against ads. This was also another chance to screen our wonderful short film (made by the lovely team at Broaden in Manchester).
Later in the month, Robbie and Veronica hosted an event alongside the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, where we called on government to get serious about reducing demand for climate-wrecking products, and heard first-hand accounts of the impact digital ad screens can have.
In other news…
🥦The ad regulator is investigating a series of RSPCA ads following an Adfree Cities complaint earlier this year. We argue that the ads mislead about the RSPCA’s work as they fail to mention the RSPCA’s ‘Assured’ farms scheme which has been exposed as certifying farms despite repeated documented instances of animal cruelty.
- Read more on the blog: ASA to investigate RSPCA ads after Adfree Cities complaint
- Take action: Join the campaign For Charlie, named after a pig who was rescued from an RSPCA Assured farm, and call on RSPCA to drop its certification of factory farming
🌽The latest episode of Better Without Billboards, the Adfree Cities podcast, is now available to listen. Nicola and James speak to councillor Ben Parker, who was instrumental in passing the recent high carbon ad ban in Edinburgh. We discuss that motion, as well as what it might take for other councils, or even the national government, to do the same.
- Listen on Acast and Spotify
- Take action: Write to your councillor asking them for a low carbon advertising policy
🍅We submitted a response to the government consultation on planning reform. Our main contribution was to call for changes to the grounds on which outdoor advertisements can receive planning permission. Currently they are wildly inadequate and don’t take into account local residents’ views.
- Read more: Planning for Less Outdoor Advertising
- Take action: Write to your MP to ask for urgent reform to the planning rules on outdoor advertising
Events
- Find us at Ethical Consumer Conference 2024 on 8th November in East London, where Charlotte and Nicola will be running a workshop on reclaiming public space for people, not consumerism
- In Bristol on 22nd October, Veronica will be on the panel for the Altered State event – The grass isn’t always greener: greenwashing versus credible climate action
Published by