A tobacco-style ban on fossil fuel advertising would be a decisive win for Australia – and the climate.
The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has called for a global fossil fuel advertising ban. This is a policy idea that has been previously proposed by advocates in Australia, and that was quickly backed by the Greens and nine Independent MPs after the UNSG’s endorsement.
Fossil Ad Ban has been leading the charge in Australia to “stop fossil fuel companies and high greenhouse gas polluters using marketing and sponsorships to delay the inevitable and urgently required social transition to clean energy.”
Speaking at the Australia Institute’s 2024 Climate Integrity Summit, Belinda Noble, the founder and President of CommsDeclare, which runs the Fossil Ad Ban campaign, explained the sophisticated ways that the fossil fuel industry uses marketing, sponsorships and PR to embed itself into Australian culture.
Fossil fuel companies often aren’t advertising to create demand for specific products.
Woodside isn’t hoping Aussie households start buying LNG when it puts up a billboard or sponsors junior lifesavers in WA.
A majority of advertising by the fossil fuel industry is to prolong their social and cultural licence – to show that they are a part of Australian history and culture and to cement themselves as part of Australia.
And because fossil fuel companies make extraordinary profits, pay little tax and Australian governments provide fossil fuel subsidies worth $14.5 billion each year, they can easily afford to spend money on advertising.
Fossil Ad Ban has found that Australia’s top five fossil fuel advertisers spend more than $200 million annually on advertising across all platforms including radio, billboards, and digital.
Drawing parallels between other damaging industries, such as the tobacco industry, Ms Noble explained how simple solutions can also combat its influence. Specifically, a ban on fossil fuel ads would limit the fossil fuel industry’s influence in the public sphere.
“We started the Fossil Ad Ban campaign, which aims to have tobacco-style restrictions on fossil fuel ads and fossil fuel sponsorships, because I’m a very strong believer, having spent my career in media and comms that only laws will stop the influence.” – Belinda Noble
Industry-specific fossil fuel ad ban campaigns such as Fossil Free Books seek to mobilise employees and consumers to encourage divestment from fossil fuel sponsorship. This kind of campaign has succeeded in cases such as the Walkley Awards, which ended its sponsorship deal with Ampol in 2024 after boycotts from well-known figures in 2023.
It has happened before
This would not be the first time that governments have banned harmful advertising.
The federal government phased-out direct cigarette advertising on TV and radio in the late 1970s, and incidental advertising in the form of sports sponsorship was permitted until the end of 1995.
The tobacco industry used advertising and sponsoring sporting teams and events to give the public positive associations with their products – despite the overwhelming scientific evidence of the harms of smoking.
The tobacco advertising ban removed the cigarette industry’s social license to promote its products in the interest of public well-being. Belinda Noble suggests that a similar campaign needs to accompany a fossil fuel ad ban.
“There has to be a social license campaign along with the climate campaign and a component of that should be restrictions or greenhouse gas labelling or information on the damage that fossil fuels are doing.”
Football with a side of fossil fuels
Research from the Australia Institute shows that the majority of South Australians support banning gambling, alcohol and fossil fuel advertising during sporting events and in sporting broadcasts in the state.
‘Companies have sought to use sport to peddle dangerous and harmful products to the public for decades. Tobacco advertising was rightly outlawed in the past and now South Australians want to see the government extend that ban to other harmful industries.
Children and families watching sport on TV or going to a local footy match shouldn’t be subjected to greenwashing and advertising for gambling and alcohol.” – Noah Schultz-Byard, Director of Strategic Partnerships at The Australia Institute.
Historically, tobacco companies skirted restrictions and public condemnation with “incidental” advertising in the form of logos on players’ shirts or sponsorship banners at event locations.
Sound familiar?
We wouldn’t be the first
Banning fossil fuel advertising has proven to be an affordable fix for European cities. Amsterdam was the first city to ban fossil fuel advertising in 2021, and France became the first European country to pass legislation prohibiting the advertising of fossil fuel energy products nation-wide.
The EU has pushed forward a new law banning misleading environmental claims in advertising.
In Australia, the ACT bans the advertising of coal, oil and gas on light rail stops. More than 15 local councils in Australia have supported a fossil fuel ad ban for council property and signage.
Speaking on Yarra City Council’s decision to implement a ban on new fossil fuel advertising across all Council property, Dr Ben Dunne, from Doctors for the Environment Australia, said,
“Fossil fuel combustion is having a devastating effect on our health – it pollutes our air and is the primary cause of climate disruption. Banning fossil fuel advertising will encourage the shift in social and political attitudes that we urgently need to transition to safer, cleaner energy to protect lives.”
At the Climate Integrity Summit, Dr Fergus Green, Lecturer in Political Theory and Public Policy, University College London suggested the Australian government could step in as a sponsor for community groups, sporting organisations and arts institutions looking to divest from fossil fuels.
Edinburgh city council most recently banned advertising and sponsorship from all ‘carbon-intensive’ sources including airlines and airports, fossil fuel companies, cars (except electric and hydrogen vehicles) and cruises.
As Andrew Simms, author and co-founder of the U.K.’s Badvertising group, tells Forbes, banning advertisements is cheaper and quicker than, “more costly climate actions, such as retrofitting homes and building infrastructure. Politically, banning the adverts doesn’t prevent people flying, driving or taking resource-intensive, luxury cruises…But, like with the tobacco ban, it stops their promotion so that fewer people will take those options.”
Amsterdam and Edinburgh’s policies exemplify the enormous potential for small actors like local councils to push for change through comparatively accessible means like a fossil fuel ban.
While Edinburgh reported pushback from advertising firms who claimed the ban would lead to a loss in revenue for the city, the council says other non-carbon-intensive companies quickly take up the free ad space.
The UN’s recent endorsement shows that fossil fuel advertising bans are a no-brainer. “The godfathers of climate chaos – the fossil-fuel industry – rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies. It is a disgrace that the most vulnerable are being left stranded, struggling desperately to deal with a climate crisis they did nothing to create.” – UNSG António Guterres.
Models for the ban exist across Europe and within Australia. A ban on fossil fuel advertising would be a win for the climate and the health of future generations.
