If it promotes high-carbon use - in fossil fuels, SUVs and flights - we should call it “badvertising”. But could that lead to “goodvertising”?
Over the last few years of the Alternative UK, we have had much attention and involvement from people working in the advertising and marketing industry.
They have contributed much to our mission of providing alternatives to broken politics They improved the story around transformative policies; helped us with imagery and research; enthusiastically supported and shaped our community engagements. Our sense is that the sector is bursting with idealistic, talented folks, who want to put their narrative and world-making talents at the service of people and planet.
But it’s probably long overdue, at least in the UK, that the inevitable question must be directly asked of the advertising industry: To what extent are you on the wrong side of the climate crisis question, when your job is to incite and shape levels of consumption that inevitably lead to the perilous warming of the planet?
So this new Badvertising campaign - whose subtitle is “stop adverts fuelling the climate emergency”- has an interesting sense of focus. As you’ll read in their FAQ below, they pick off the obvious targets:
What is the campaign about? ‘Badvertising’ is a new campaign to stop adverts fuelling the climate emergency. This includes ads for cars, airline flights and fossil fuels. We ended tobacco advertising when we understood the harm done by smoking. Now we know the damage done by fossil fuel products and activities, it’s time to stop promoting them.
Who is behind this campaign? The campaign is organised by the New Weather Institute think tank and the climate action charity Possible. The project is kindly funded by the KR Foundation.
What are high-carbon goods? They are products and activities that emit high amounts of CO2 emissions such as fossil fuels, large diesel or petrol car engines and air travel.
How does high-carbon advertising fuel the climate crisis? Adverts for large cars, air travel or fossil fuels are particularly bad for the environment given the high levels of carbon emissions they are responsible for. Research shows there is a link between advertising and higher levels of consumption.
None of us are immune to the adverts that we are exposed to. Therefore, high-carbon advertising plays an important role in the climate crisis by promoting harmful consumer habits.
Why do we need to curb high-carbon advertising? Millions of people living in places with a climate emergency declaration still face adverts for high-carbon goods. It’s time to clear the view and end this contradiction.
Encouraging the consumption of high-carbon goods and services by allowing companies to promote their products is simply not compatible with the need to drastically reduce CO2 emissions. The removal of high-carbon adverts is an essential part of achieving climate justice.
What actions can you take to support the removal of high-carbon ads?
Learn how to stop a new digital advertising screen in your area
Take action to end high-carbon adverts through your local council
Register for the first ever Adfree Cities national online conference, Sat 7th November
Their “what’s the problem” page backs this up further with research. And this blog notes that there are a number of initiatives within the industry that want advertising to fully measure their carbon impact. Take Purpose Disruptors, a “network of advertising insiders”:
Our work is focused on creating ripples of change which enable long lasting and far reaching change to happen. A key role of the Purpose disruptors is to create the infrastructure to enable this.
We carefully design and curate the spaces and opportunities for people to meet, learn about our climate emergency, share how they are feeling, and take collective action. To date we have run 20x pub nights and virtual events, 6x Climate Summits, 12x Actions Studios and currently there are three industry-wide live initiatives that have come out of these activities: The Great Reset, Create & Strike and #changethebrief. The ripples work by converting emotion into energy and then action.
We welcome this activity. In a world where companies are permanently sensitive about their “brand”, there is considerable agency in “creatives” suggesting (say) a beautiful, inspiring story about a zero- or negative-carbon service—and then inviting the investment and business process to line up behind it.
We ran a piece last week by Vinay Gupta which asked us to imagine a whole new ethical universe of material “stuff” in our lives. These would be objects designed for durability and repair, thus treasurable and sellable, their carbon and resource impact inherently trackable. What is the glowing, emotive, inspiring human story to be told about this kind of structural shift?
Creatives on the hunt to put themselves in myth-and-world-making service to these kinds of breakthroughs could begin to open up a new category: call it “goodvertising”?