Adfree Cities

Shape Your Streets Find out more about Bite Back's Shape Your Streets — a fully funded opportunity bringing Local Authorities and young people together to build healthier and fairer communities.

Calling all Scottish Local Authorities 📣 @biteback2030.bsky.social are giving you the opportunity to work with them & local young people to #ShapeOurStreets & address the impact of unhealthy foods in our communities including the outdoor advertising that we can't avoid. Find out more:

This is a clear way that councils can support reducing the demand for, & normalisation of, products & services that are damaging to the planet & to local populations. It also helps to start conversations about the amount of ads on our streets & what we would rather see there instead 🌳

Why are the government so worried about our high streets and how can restricting advertising help? - Adfree Cities The ‘death of the high street’ is never far from the political agenda. Recent research from Southampton University found that people feel high streets have declined more than any other part of their l...

We were pleased to see the Prime Minister championing the Pride in Place Strategy last week which aims to give more control to local people to improve their neighbourhoods & high streets - but this should be more ambitious that litter picking! People don't want outdoor ads in their public spaces

We are very pleased that the Nutrient Profiling Model has been updated - this identifies which foods & drinks are unhealthy & should not be promoted. With local policies in place there can be fewer unhealthy ads on our streets & more space for healthy products ✅But ideally we need a national ban ❌

More applications for ads in #Cardiff - if you live, work or play there support @adblockcardiff.bsky.social by sending in objections to show that these neighbourhoods are #BetterWithoutBillboards

Are there local elections taking place near you this May? 🗳️

Want candidates to commit to restricting harmful outdoor advertising & getting this on the political agenda? ✅

Get involved & take action: adfreecities.org.uk/2026/01/may-...

The role will focus on designing and delivering creative campaigns that challenge the power Big Oil wields through its advertising, marketing and PR, as well as lobbying policymakers for restrictions on fossil fuel advertising.

Ideally, the successful candidate would be Bristol-based.

Job Vacancy: Big Oil Creative Campaigner - Adfree Cities Location: Bristol-based.Days per week: 3 days per week.Start Date: Late February 2026 / March 2026Salary: £34,000 pro-rata (see below for details)Contract: 2 year fixed term contract - with the possib...

📣We're hiring!📣

We're looking for a creative campaigner to join our small, dynamic team to support our efforts countering the influence of Big Oil.

Find full details and job description here: adfreecities.org.uk/work-with-us...

Open Letter to Secretaries of State Urges Tougher Junk Food Advertising Rules to Protect Children - Obesity Health Alliance The Obesity Health Alliance has written to the Secretaries of State for Health and Social Care and for Culture, Media and Sport to welcome the introduction of the Less Healthy Food and Drink Advertisi...

We’ve joined @oha-updates.bsky.social & others to welcome new rules restricting junk food ads on TV & online. This is a big step forward acknowledging the impact of advertising on public health - But there's more to do to include outdoor ads & remove 'brand' exemptions for healthier public spaces

Calling Penarth adblockers! 📢Here is how you can object to this ad screen before Jan 12th: adfreecities.org.uk/how-to-creat... #OurSpaceNotAdSpace

Amazon and the cost of Christmas - Red Pepper Amazon’s Black Friday-January Sales juggernaut of consumerism is uniting campaigners against the corporation's varied crimes

While the festive season remains culturally sacred, Amazon’s Black Friday-January Sales juggernaut of consumerism is uniting campaigners - Adfree's Robbie Gillett writes for @redpeppermag.bsky.social #MakeAmazonPay @ethical-consumer.bsky.social www.redpepper.org.uk/economics-un...

Calling all #Cardiff Adblockers - here is another sneaky application just in time for #Christmas 🎁 Get objecting to keep your public spaces free from ads ✅

This is exactly why we are calling for restrictions on harmful ads on our streets & in our public spaces where we have not consented to seeing them & can't turn them off! 😶 This is a public health issue that the Government must address & listen to people not advertisers 😡

We were very happy to be involved supporting the recommendation to restrict unhealthy food and drink advertising to address #publichealth

However, businesses can still:
1. Ensure that they are advertising healthier products across all media channels 🍏
2. Learn from the Councils which have HFSS bans or healthier ad frameworks to promote healthy products 🚫
3. Shift promotional spend and creative towards minimally processed foods ➡️

"Advertising, marketing and promotion are the cultural wallpaper that form the backdrop to our cultural, social and individual attitudes towards food, yet this is currently heavily skewed towards promoting less healthy and less sustainable food."

"McDonald’s is by far the largest spender on outdoor
advertising, spending a total of £86 million in 2024,
an increase of 71% between 2024 and 2021. This is
three times more spend on outdoor advertising than
KFC, and four times more than Mondelez." (who own Cadbury, Oreo etc.)

"... food business have increased their spend on outdoor advertising by over a quarter (28%) between 2021 & 2024... Of the top 20 outdoor advertisers by spend in 2024, almost half (45%) were food companies, with... two fast food outlets & 5 manufacturers featuring in the top 20 biggest spenders."

"Outdoor advertising for food appears to be increasing ahead of the forthcoming ban on TV and online, with advertising by food businesses 12.2% of total outdoor advertising in 2024, up from 9.5% in 2021...spend on food & drink combined rises to over a fifth of all outdoor advertising (21%) in 2024."

"For children, outdoor advertising provides the second largest source of exposure to food advertising (30.3%) after television advertising, and accounts for the largest source of HFSS food advertising (40.0%)" (NIHR, 2024) www.fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR20...

The State of the Nation's Food Industry report 2025 The Food Foundation's State of the Nation’s Food Industry report 2025

"Outdoor advertising spend by food companies increased by 28% between 2021 and 2024 in the years following the government’s announcement in July 2020 of a forthcoming ban on TV and online advertising. McDonald’s increased outdoor advertising spend by 71% between 2021 and 2024."

The latest State of the Nation report from @foodfoundation.bsky.social includes how the industry are already ramping up outdoor ads to target children & disadvantaged communities who already have worse health outcomes - here are some key stats from the report: 🧵

Note that the SUV in this clip is a Toyota.

Our complaint got a Toyota ad banned in 2023 for "disregard[ing] their impact on nature and the environment".

This is not what we want to see from our public broadcaster.

Another day another SUV ad from the BBC.

Gone Fishing is supposed to be a celebration of the countryside, does it really need an extended clip of a massive SUV fording a river for no reason? Save it for Top Gear!

Screenshot of a video call: a man appears speaking next to a larger photo of Antonio Guterres with the caption "we must stop mad men fuelling the madness"

Last week Adfree co-founder Robbie Gillett spoke at the #COP30 Health Pavilion on how the fossil fuel industry uses advertising and marketing to maintain social licence and hide their true impact.

Thanks to @who.int for hosting us at this fascinating event 🙌

We're incredibly thrilled to be speaking at this #COP30 side-event on the harms of fossil fuel advertising.

Join from anywhere using the livestream link in the post below 🔗👇💚

Planning application alert in #Cardiff 📢 Stop this huge screen from distracting drivers & causing unnecessary light pollution - OBJECT NOW!

Reading clamps down on unhealthy food and drink advertisements The advertising of ‘unhealthy’ food will be clamped down upon in Reading going forward.Reading Borough Council possesses advertising space throughout

Very welcome news from Reading where the council is clamping down on outdoor ads for unhealthy food.

"The issue with advertising is that it takes away that freedom of choice that we all have about what we eat" 🔥

rdg.today/reading-clam...

Residents’ devastation as “birdsong tree” felled for corporate advertising - Adfree Cities There was anger and sadness in Norwich just a week before Christmas when a popular ash tree was felled as part of works to replace three billboards owned by outdoor advertising company Wildstone on Ma...

Sadly we have seen this in other areas where local trees are destroyed to make space for ads - adfreecities.org.uk/2024/12/resi...

EAT-Lancet 2025 has a vision for a fairer food system (without advertising) - Adfree Cities The new EAT-Lancet report was published earlier this month, with a refreshed analysis of the global food system and how we might achieve a healthy diet for all which stays within planetary boundaries....

Reducing the influence of advertising will help create healthier food environments and enable the shift towards a more sustainable, just food system - as highlighted by the new EAT-Lancet report, a major scientific analysis of our global food system:
adfreecities.org.uk/2025/11/eat-...