AT A MEETING on Thursday Wokingham borough council’s executive committee is set to approve an updated Advertising Policy that concerned residents say goes against the council’s own commitment to sustainability, public health and tackling climate change.
The group, members of Adblock, urge people to attend the meeting to demonstrate that citizens care about the impact of corporate advertising on wellbeing, environment, health, climate, community and the local economy.
Adblock is concerned that the council will approve an Advertising and Sponsorship policy that will allow adverts for products such as High Fat, Salt and Sugar (HFSS) foods, SUVs, flights, and cruises to be displayed on local authority assets like bus stops.
Adblock has campaigned hard to prevent this.
“When the Advertising and Sponsorship policy draft was presented in June, we were pleased to see that it was comprehensive and covered most of what we had been requesting,” said Anne Coffey from Adblock Wokingham.
“It seemed to be generally accepted by councillors although there were a few suggestions and objections, so the Commercialisation Team said they would take these into consideration and work on it further.”
This they did, presenting it again at the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee meeting on September 29.
But this time councillors discussed how banning certain types of advertising might lead to possible reduction of income.
“As a result, the majority of those present decided against adopting the policy, despite it being based on the council’s own commitment to sustainability, public health and tackling climate change, Anne explained.
“Income reduction was not definite, just ‘possible’.
“We think the figures were supplied by ad company JC Decaux for Edinburgh Council.
“They could well refer to the loss that JC Decaux would experience from restricting fossil fuel ads, rather than a loss to Edinburgh Council.
“There’s no evidence that such a loss has happened elsewhere.”
Adblock says that any small drop in council revenues through excluding ads for high carbon products such as SUVs or airlines must be considered against the benefits of cleaner air and reduced greenhouse gas emissions (and the avoided public health costs).
“The promotion of high-carbon products is incompatible with the council’s net zero objectives and goes against one of its key priorities to ‘encourage behaviour change’,” continued Anne.
“Is it right for them to receive income from advertising products that actually damage our health?”
The council’s Advertising Policy will be discussed at the WBC Executive Meeting on Thursday October 16.
Adblock would like as many residents as possible to attend the meeting, to show that citizens are aware and that they care.
People can just turn up to attend the meeting at Shute End, Wokingham, on Thursday, October 16, at 7pm.
For information, visit: wokingham.gov.uk
For a link to attend via Teams, email: democratic.services@wokingham.gov.uk
For more information, visit: adfreecities.org.uk
