News / Adblock Bristol
Billboards demanding end to airline adverts appear near Bristol Airport
A series of artworks demanding an end to advertising for airlines have appeared on roads leading up to Bristol Airport.
Environmental activists from the Brandalism network installed 20 billboards and bus stop posters across the city without permission over the last week.
One reads “stop promoting our own self-destruction”, while another reads “stop adverts flying us into climate chaos”.
is needed now More than ever
The campaign is part of an international week of action against airline advertising, sponsorship and greenwashing carried out by over 30 groups.
Activists from Adblock have renewed their calls for Bristol City Council to take action against advertising for polluting products, writing to ask them to prohibit advertising for airlines and airports on local authority advertising boards.
Environmental activists were able to install 20 billboards over a week
They are also calling for a review of the council’s Advertising and Sponsorship Policy, introduced in 2021, which already prohibits ads for junk food, gambling and payday loans.
Last month, Sheffield Council became the latest local authority in the UK to implement a ban on advertising for environmentally-damaging products.
“Safety instructions for airlines in the event of a climate emergency”
Speaking about the campaign, Benoit Bennet from Adblock Bristol said: “Councils around the world such as Sheffield, Cambridgeshire, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Sydney are all taking action against adverts for polluting products.
“Forward-thinking cities like Bristol have declared a climate emergency and have admirable goals to become carbon neutral by 2030.
“We need to ensure that all the council’s policies support that goal, including the types of products the council allows to be advertised on ad sites it controls such as bus stops.”
“Advertising by airports and airlines normalises air travel and frequent flying with a superficial glamour without regard to its substantial climate impacts.”
Robbie Gillet from the Badvertising campaign added: “We are stuck in a dangerous logic that airports ‘must expand to meet a growth in demand’ but that growth is being driven, in part, by advertising encouraging us to fly.
“Stating that ‘people are always going to fly’ is like saying ‘people are always going to smoke cigarettes’.
“We have intervened in the past to stop advertising for tobacco in order to reduce demand. So too should we remove the constant calls to buy more flights.”
Bristol24/7 has approached Bristol City Council for comment
All photos: Adblock Bristol
Read next:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
