Adfree Cities

"Car advertisements are as unrealistic as cigarette advertisements were... portraying glamorous aspirational scenarios that users cannot achieve: e.g. showcasing cars driving through empty cities. Congestion, air pollution, noise, crashes, and impacts of climate change do not feature."

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Event: Healthy neighbourhoods, green streets and thriving public spaces: how the planning system should serve local communities - Adfree Cities Monday 29th September 2025, 11am, please register for free below@ The Institute Room, Quaker Meeting House, Liverpool (22 School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BT) - Labour Party Conference fringe event (All we...

Heading to #LabourPartyConference this year? Join us for an amazing (FREE!) panel event on creating healthy public spaces.

Featuring:
- Dame Henrietta Moore
- Margaret Mullane MP
- Areeba Hamid, exec-dir at Greenpeace UK
- Cllr Julia Willams
- Hugh Ellis, TCPA.

bit.ly/adfree-labco...

Junk food & gambling ads right outside the @libdems.org.uk conference shows why we're here talking to councillors about policies to restrict harmful ads to protect #publichealth & #nature🌿 @ldnc-uk.bsky.social @assoclibdemcllrs.bsky.social @libdemlocalgov.bsky.social

We're off to Greater Manchester this weekend: come and find us at one of the three venues we're visiting to talk with communities and councillors about our public spaces and public health. Full details here: adfreecities.org.uk/events/

@luketaylorld.bsky.social @clivejonesmp.bsky.social @rozsavage.bsky.social @rodneyberman.bsky.social @assoclibdemcllrs.bsky.social @libdemlocalgov.bsky.social @carogucc.bsky.social

We were very pleased to see the issue of outdoor advertising & the health impact on local communities raised in the Lords last week - we will be discussing this issue at our fringe event at Lib Dem conference next weekend - 21st Sept 6.15-7.15pm - & supporting councillors to take action locally

Calling all #Lambeth Adblockers! 📢 Adblock Lambeth are holding a meeting on Monday 29th September - 6pm - 8pm @ The Prince Regent pub, Herne Hill. Get involved in planning their activities for the year ahead & find out more about what they have been up to - adfreecities.org.uk/lambeth/

Who watches the watchdog? Erm... no-one, apparently. We submitted a joint complaint to the ASA about their own misleading adverts, along with our @badvertising.bsky.social partners. The ASA won't investigate it. So who will?

Congratulations to the Vale of Glamorgan for becoming the first local authority in #Wales to introduce an Advertising & Sponsorship Protocol which restricts 'junk food', gambling & payday loans to protect the public health of local communities 🥳 Which Welsh Council will be next?...

Do you live in Cardiff and want to see fewer harmful ads? Tell your councillor to support a stronger ad policy for Cardiff.

Here is our blog from the summit last year - sadly not much has changed and a national ad ban is still a no-brainer! adfreecities.org.uk/2024/10/gamb...

Good to see that gambling advertising is understood as a public health issue at the Peers For Gambling Reform summit & there is a need for OHID to expand their gambling harms remit to cover the impact of ads @drbeccycoopermp.bsky.social

We are at the Peers For Gambling Reform summit today - Will from @endgamblingads.bsky.social highlights the 90+ councils who already ban gambling ads because they understand the impact they have on local communities. But we really need a NATIONAL BAN to protect people from gambling harms

Officials pan bid for more screens in city centre Officials fearing advert overload have binned multinational ad company's bid to stick even more screens on city centre streets.

Great to see that Norwich City Council have rejected new unnecessary digital ad screens in the city centre saying that additional screens would overwhelm the city's heritage & beauty with a proliferation of advertising @adblocknorwich.bsky.social www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/2521730...

Vale of Glamorgan council hopes to ban junk food adverts Vale of Glamorgan council could be the first to ban junk food adverts in some public spaces.

Great to see this in the Vale of Glamorgan. More and more Welsh councils are taking such steps - but wouldn't it be great to see parties campaigning for a national ban at next year's Senedd election?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

@adfreecities.bsky.social
#AdvertisingShitsInYourHead

We can't afford billionaires. We can't afford extreme wealth. But we CAN afford living wages and a good life for all workers. So we're joining @makethempay.bsky.social with the Billionaires Out of Fashion bloc. Join us!

Image shows a billboard that has half fallen down revealing rusty framework. Text over the image reads "How the billboards look now"

A CGI image shows a bench and a tree next to a road. Text over the image reads "how the space could look".

Three dilapidated billboards in east Bristol have got us thinking about how the space could look different.

What would you rather see instead of corporate advertising?

#BetterWithoutBillboards

🌼 Heading to #GreenGathering this weekend? So are we!
We're bringing our anti-advertising monstrosity #BillboardDystopia to the Campaigns Field, and running workshops in the Campaigns Dome on Friday at 12pm and Saturday at 2pm. Hope to see you there 💚 www.greengathering.org.uk/campaigns-fi...

French Senate backs law to curb ultra fast-fashion France's Senate approved a revised version of a law regulating fast fashion on Tuesday, which if implemented would ban advertising by fast-growing Chinese e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu.

France set to pass advertising ban on ultra-fast fashion brands like Shein and Temu 🙌

This is the kind of bold action we need to break the cycles of consumerism that are so harmful to people and planet.

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

David Lammy Shouldn’t Have Given a Spin Doctor for Planetary Death a Plum Foreign Office Job | Novara Media Is someone who has years of experience doing PR for fossil fuel companies wrecking the planet the best choice to oversee the Foreign Office? Obviously not, writes Adam Ramsay.

Former president of WPP UK - an ad firm representing some of the world's worst polluters - is now able to influence UK foreign policy.

Is this what being a climate leader looks like?

novaramedia.com/2025/07/16/d...

Petition: Promote plant-based foods over meat and dairy for a healthier Britain To help protect planetary and human health, the Government must promote plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, and legumes, and end any support for campaigns promoting meat and dairy....

🐮 Demand for industrial animal farming is driven by advertising and marketing.
👩‍🌾 This petition calls on government to promote plant-based foods, and end any support for campaigns promoting meat and dairy. Please sign and share:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...

McDonald’s Threaten Legal Action Over Mural - Real Media - The View From Below A manager of the Penge McDonalds threatened legal action after vegan street artist Louis Michel painted a rather beautiful rendition of a cow sitting in a burger with the slogan “I’m Not Lovin’It”.

"I'm not lovin' it" says this thought-provoking cow mural by artist Louis Michel. The manager of the McDonald's opposite wasn't loving it either, and threatened legal action. Are they scared that people might stop and think about the reality behind their marketing?
realmedia.press/mcdonalds-mu...

CO2 emissions from UK aviation are higher than ever. But flights are advertised as a harmless bit of fun.

Join Adfree co-director Robbie Gillett to explore the role of advertising in driving aviation demand, and the strategies we have to challenge it.

climatecatalyst.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Live from Parliament: it's frustrating to see some MPs pointing to existing regulation to address miselading and harmful advertising, when we know from our own engagement with the ASA that regulation is failing to do this: adfreecities.org.uk/tag/asa/. We need government to act.

YouTube video by UK Parliament E-petition debate relating to fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship - Monday 7 July 2025.

The video is live here and will be available after the debate: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ9U...

We're live from the Parliament debate on fossil fuel ads: it's good to see @simonforstroud.bsky.social stating that “Fossil Fuel advertising isn’t just misleading, it’s dangerous", and that reducing advertising works to reduce consumption. We hope other members take this on board.

Live from Parliament: Great to see @carladenyer.bsky.social quote our research on the links between outdoor advertising and inequality, and calling for national interventions on harmful advertising including gambling ads, given local councils' limited powers to address the harms

We're live at the debate in Parliament on fossil fuel advertising and bringing you updates as they happen! @jacobcolliermp.bsky.social says of fossil fuel advertising that “We’re now in an era of compliant deception” and points to the harmful positive associations created through sports sponsorship

Call to drop Range Rover sponsorship of Wimbledon as SUVs 82% more likely to kill children | London Daily News A coalition of parents and 15 grassroots groups co-ordinated by the SUV Alliance has written to the organisers of the Wimbledon tennis championships urging them to drop sponsorship from Range Rover, g...

Advertising and sponsorship help drive the dangerous rise in SUVs, which are 82% more likely to kill children. So along with @cleancitiescampaign.org @mumsforlungs.bsky.social & others we're calling on @wimbledonltc.bsky.social to drop their SUV sponsors.
www.londondaily.news/call-to-drop...