In a speech to UK advertising executives last week, Lord Ed Vaizey had nothing good to say about a new ban on junk food ads aimed at children.

Nor did the Conservative peer mention a petition signed by more than 110,000 people calling on parliament to impose a tobacco-style ban on ads for fossil fuels.  

Instead, Vaizey used his keynote at the annual Advertising Association conference to call for as little regulation as possible.

“I see a political class that is tempted to ban what it doesn’t like rather than use the power of advertising to change behaviour,” Lord Vaizey told the crowd at the start of the one-day event.

The ad industry is facing scrutiny for its role in the climate crisis — from bombarding the public with ads for unsustainable products such as frequent flying and fuel-guzzling sports utility vehicles, to protecting the reputations of the world’s biggest polluters.

With cities such as Edinburgh and Sheffield imposing some restrictions on fossil fuel ads, and Amsterdam enshrining a blanket ban, campaigners want to persuade more towns and cities to follow suit in the hope of winning national bans as well.

Yet talks at the conference — which took place in London on February 5 — barely touched on the climate crisis. Discussions centred instead on the rise of artificial intelligence and rebuilding public trust in advertising, eroded by concerns over online scam ads and misinformation.

Vaizey’s speech focused on advertising’s role in powering the economy and included a swipe at the junk food ad ban, which came into effect on January 5 following years of cross-party support. The new rules stop high sugar, fat and salt foods being advertised online or on television before 9pm.

Vaizey told the conference that such bans did not have “really any clear effect” on health.

However, a February 2022 peer-reviewed study published in PLoS medicine found that London households reduced the amount of calories consumed from high fat, salt and sugar foods by almost 7 percent after a ban on junk food ads on public transport, with calorie intake from chocolate and sweets falling almost 20 percent.

“There is clear academic evidence that ad bans are highly effective at reducing consumption of harmful products such as unhealthy foods,” said Victoria Harvey, an academic researcher on the advertising industry.

“Vaizey’s speech…fits with the Advertising Association’s opposition to junk food advertising legislation as well as their continued opposition to banning ads for fossil fuels,” Harvey added.

An Advertising Association spokesperson said that Lord Vaizey was speaking in a personal capacity and the views he expressed on junk food advertising were his own. The spokesperson referred DeSmog to a review by consultancy SLG Economics — funded by the Advertising Association and other trade groups — that contended that the February 2022 research contained “clear and obvious discrepancies.” 

Industry Lobbies Against Bans

Vaizey, who served as culture minister under former Conservative prime minister David Cameron, has pushed back against a junk food ad ban for years. 

The peer led a call in 2022 to delay the ban by a year, according to reporting by the Grocer. Vaizey also proposed a “sunset clause” that would have scrapped the law after five years if it was not shown to be effective.

The Advertising Association and Food and Drink Federation backed Vaizey’s calls — reflecting a wider pattern of industry lobbying to defeat or dilute proposed ad bans. 

Paris-based JCDecaux, the world’s largest outdoor advertising operator, attempted to block passage of Amsterdam’s fossil fuel ad ban by emailing city councillors directly the day before the vote. JCDecaux, which controls ad space on bus shelters, billboards, and street furniture, claimed that the ban would have “far-reaching financial and legal consequences”, and warned officials against creating restrictions based on “incorrect and incomplete information.” 

Amsterdam adopted the ban on January 22, becoming the first capital city to ban fossil fuel ads.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who introduced the ban on junk food ads on the city’s public transport in 2019, has stopped short of slapping a similar ban on fossil fuel ads — saying more guidance from the government is needed before he can make a decision.  

Hundreds of advertising campaigns by oil and gas companies have run on London’s public transport network TfL in recent years, a DeSmog investigation found.

A week before the Advertising Association conference, a group of 15 senior ad executives sought to foreground their industry’s role in the climate crisis and other harms by publishing an anonymous memo accusing the sector of “funding hate, legitimising environmentally destructive companies” and “paying little more than lip service” to addressing critical issues.

In the memo, which was coordinated by the UK group Inside Track, the executives said the industry was “helping polluting industries such as oil and gas rebuff public scrutiny.”

The Advertising Association spokesperson said that in response “We contacted them on the day the memo was published and said we would be open to a meeting to hear more about the findings. We have since been offered a meeting date in March.”

Lord Vaizey did not respond to a request for comment.