It’s time to ban the advertising of high carbon products – like flights abroad and fossil-fuelled cars

Amsterdam has become the world’s first city to ban high-carbon adverts on its metro system. As of 23 May, adverts promoting flights and fossil fuelled cars were banned – and I applaud it.

As governments battle the climate emergency, it is insane to have billions pouring into advertising the industries fuelling the greatest threat to humanity. It is time for a global ban on advertising for fossil fuel corporations and high-carbon products – just as governments realised that in order to tackle the tobacco health crisis, they needed to ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship.

In fact, there are many parallels between the battle to ban tobacco adverts and the new campaigns to ban fossil fuel adverts. These were outlined in the report “Smoking out the Climate”, which pointed out that pollution from burning fossil fuels contain many of the same toxins as tobacco smoke – and both industries pursue similar marketing strategies to block or delay regulations.

Both cause millions of deaths from air pollution. But the climate crisis is infinitely worse than the tobacco health crisis, as according to the UN it poses an existential threat to humanity itself. Thus, a ban is even more urgent and justified.

The US advertising divestment campaign, Clean Creatives, has produced a report called “Polluted PR”, which lists the major oil corporations and what ad agencies work for them. More than 80 advertising agencies have signed their pledge to ban contracts from fossil fuel corporations. They can then display the “Clean Creatives” logo, to assure clients that they do not work for fossil fuel corporations.

In 2018, a group of UK XR activists travelled to peacefully disrupt the Cannes advertising awards ceremony, calling for the industry to divest from fossil fuels. The XR Adland spokesperson, Will Skeaping, told this column that the industry was in denial of its role in the current climate and ecological destruction of the planet.

Their call prompted Solitaire Townsend, from Futerra, to co-found an initiative asking agencies to sign a transparency pledge on the proportion of their high-carbon contracts. It also asks individual creatives to pledge not to work on fossil fuel campaigns. More than 120 agencies have already subscribed and their transparency reports are available on the Creative Climate Disclosure website.

Townsend was emphatic when she told me that the oil and gas industry “don’t advertise – they lobby through the medium of advertising.” She said none of their advertising is aimed at consumer preferences, but is all about reputational promotion. She claimed they use advertising to influence public opinion against regulation – and to maintain “social permission” to exist, despite having a destructive influence on the planet.

This is borne out by the US lawsuit in Massachusetts – the US state is suing Exxon for allegedly promoting their products while being aware of the damage they cause, and for using marketing to “greenwash” their company. This “greenwashing” is done by pouring huge advertising budgets into promoting oil corporation minor investments in renewable energy, asserting that they are part of the “solution” to the crisis, whilst planning literally trillions more in fossil fuel investments over the coming decade. In the UK, the “Stop Funding Heat” campaign calls on companies to not advertise on media that denies or opposes action on the climate emergency.

These campaigns to ban advertising of fossil fuel corporations are especially important in the UK. This is because the UK is a major global advertising hub with a significant proportion of the world’s fossil fuel advertising accounts. According to the Polluted PR report, WPP – the UK’s largest international ad agency – has had contracts with nearly all the major oil corporations, including Chevron, Exxon, BP and Shell. Yet WPP boasts about its net zero carbon commitments – and how it calculates the emissions from its adverts.

So, I asked them if – in the light of the IEA report stating an immediate moratorium on all new fossil fuel investments was required to hit net zero 2050 – would they consider ceasing working with Shell and other fossil fuel corporations. They declined to comment.

Townsend points out that these advertising agencies have what she calls “Scope X emissions”. These are the emissions that result from the agency helping to increase the sales of the high-carbon products or helping delay regulation of fossil fuels – and would dwarf any emissions from the actual placement of adverts by an agency.

But we do not have time for the 40 years it took to ban tobacco advertising in the UK – the climate crisis is happening now, and the UK is one of the largest hubs for the fossil fuel empire’s war on humanity. Our banks fund an estimated 15 per cent of global fossil fuel investments, our insurance companies insure up to 55 per cent of global fossil fuel infrastructure, and our advertising agencies are a major global promoter of their greenwashing.

The UK government – as president of the Cop26 climate summit – must take urgent action on all three fronts, and put them on the agenda for Cop26. I approached the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to see if he would ban high-carbon adverts on the London Underground, following his declaration of a climate emergency. But his spokesperson declined to comment.

London and the UK must follow Amsterdam and ban the advertising industry from promoting the fossil fuel corporations who are destroying our kids’ futures – and instead put their extraordinary gifts and talents into saving humanity.