The ‘Badvertising’ campaign on the London underground network

WE banned tobacco adverts, so why not restrict marketing for the likes of flights and fossil fuel companies that similarly harm our health and promote climate breakdown?

So says the Badvertising campaign, a group on a mission to get rid of “high carbon” adverts and sponsorships, which are fuelling the climate emergency.

Speaking to New Journal this week, Badvertising’s Veronica Wignall urged Camden Council to join Hackney, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and The Hague, where local authorities have done exactly that.

“You can’t have meaningful climate action if you’re hearing one thing from climate experts and governments, and on the other hand you’re surrounded every day by a wallpaper of advertising promoting high consumption,” Ms Wignall said.

“It’s really easy to think, ‘advertising doesn’t impact me, I don’t notice it’, but take the example of tobacco – they saw that it harmed people’s health, and marketing restrictions was one of the levers they pulled to reduce exposure to smoking. It saved millions of lives.”

Edinburgh implemented a low-carbon advertising policy in 2024, blocking airlines, SUVs, and cruises from marketing their products in the city.

And while you might expect kick-back from the companies themselves, there is already a precedent in campaigners’ favour.

Polluting companies took The Hague’s local authority to court over similar restrictions, but the city won their case.

“Anything Camden Council is doing is all undermined by the amount of advertising there is, promoting polluting products that are worsening air quality and pushing up emissions,” Ms Wignall said.

“It is fully possible for councils to do it – they might only have a handful of billboards they manage, but if they start doing this across London and across the country, it creates a snowball effect where it becomes normal and accepted and welcome that councils restrict those kinds of adverts.”

The Badvertising campaign wants London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan to take action

In London as a whole, Badvertising is in talks with Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan to ban high-carbon ads across the Transport for London network – on every bus stop, in every tube station – just like it has done for junk food since 2019.

Ms Wignall added: “The Mayor used so much political capital to implement the ULEZ scheme, but then the dominant narrative we see every day is contradicting that.”

And like ULEZ, Badvertising is pushing “a health policy as well as a climate policy”, said Ms Wignall, adding: “We all know that SUVs have massively increased in recent years because of marketing trends, and all that results in more emissions and worse air pollution. This is where climate and health go hand in hand.”

While Badvertising’s work is often behind the scenes with politicians and councillors, a recent public stunt of guerrilla billboards at Southwark tube station – near TfL’s offices – makes that comparison between flying and tobacco.

London Assembly member Caroline Russell challenged the Mayor over high carbon TfL adverts in November.

“It seems completely extraordinary that TfL don’t prevent adverts promoting products that are undermining the Mayor’s very clear target to reach net zero for London by 2030,” she said.

“The Mayor needs to take a bit more of a stand on this. It’s so basic. If all your public policy work is about trying to prevent London becoming gummed up with traffic, to have your public transport system plastered with adverts of people with wind in their hair standing beside an SUV, it’s just bizarre.”

The same is true for councils, Ms Russell said, adding that it would be “incredible” to see low carbon advertising policies in every borough across London.