for happier, healthier cities
Towns and cities across the UK, including Edinburgh, Sheffield, Coventry and Hackney are banning advertising that harms our health and worsens climate change. Could your local area be next? In England, a suit of local elections will take place on 7 May 2026, with candidates vying for 5,036 council seats and six elected mayors. Local…Continue reading May elections: your chance to stop harmful advertising
PRESS RELEASE: Public health campaigners have welcomed moves by Cardiff Council in Wales (UK) to restrict adverts for unhealthy, polluting and harmful products – but called for advertising by fossil fuel companies to also be restricted. Under the revised policy agreed by Cardiff Council’s cabinet on 18 September 2025, “adverts relating to violence, payday loans,…Continue reading Cardiff Council bans adverts for fossil powered vehicles
For the most recent update on Cardiff Council’s policy, see this September 2025 blog. Since our last win back in January 2024, Adblock Cardiff have remained busy campaigningagainst public advertising in Cardiff, with some notable successes! After positive discussions with Cardiff Council late last year, we submitted a set of recommendations for how they might…Continue reading Cardiff council restrict harmful ads
Given the harms caused by gambling, and the risk of children becoming addicted, why is gambling advertising such a Wild West? Adfree Cities’s Charlotte Gage has been finding out why regulation isn’t working, and why a comprehensive ban on gambling ads could be the answer. In September 2024 I attended the Peers for Gambling Reform…Continue reading Gambling ads: a no brainer for a national ban?
In this guest blog, part of the Bad Publicity series, Greg Fell, president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, examines the role advertising plays in public health outcomes, and, by making comparisons to the fight against tobacco advertising, what we can do to reduce the presence of harmful advertising in our lives. …Continue reading Is advertising the next big public health issue?
Great news! The impact of advertising on health and wellbeing is beginning to be really understood with local councils leading the way by introducing content restrictions on the ad sites that they control linked to addressing Public Health goals. Research on Characterizing restrictions on commercial advertising and sponsorship of harmful commodities in local government policies:…Continue reading Upward trend in councils introducing ‘ethical’ ad policies