HOW TO START AN ADBLOCK CAMPAIGN IN YOUR AREA

2021 CONTENTS

WHY CAMPAIGN AGAINST ADVERTISING? 3 THE ADFREE CITIES VALUES 4

WHAT IS AN ADBLOCK GROUP? 5

GETTING STARTED 6

SOME INITIAL ACTIVITIES 6 FILM NIGHTS 6 ORGANISE TALKS 7 ‘’ 7

PLAN A LAUNCH EVENT 8

APPEAL TO A BROAD SELECTION OF PEOPLE 8

HAVE A POSITIVE MESSAGE 9

SET UP A SYSTEM FOR FIGHTING NEW PLANNING APPLICATIONS 10 MOBILISING PUBLIC RESPONSES TO PLANNING APPLICATIONS 11

LOCAL STRATEGY 11 PLANNING POLICIES 11 ADVERTISING POLICIES AND/OR CONTRACTS 12 CLIMATE EMERGENCY ACTION PLANS 12 ENGAGING WITH COUNCILLORS 13

USING ONLINE PLATFORMS TO CONNECT AND ORGANISE 13

HOW A LOCAL GROUP FITS INTO THE NATIONAL PICTURE 14

2 WHY CAMPAIGN AGAINST ADVERTISING?

Advertising impacts us in many ways, whether through manipulating us unconsciously or encouraging excessive consumption which is damaging our environment and wellbeing. But we don’t have to just accept outdoor advertising in our communities and public spaces and we can imagine something better. The Adfree Cities vision is:

“We want happier, healthier cities free from the pressures of corporate outdoor advertising. We are seeking alternatives beyond consumerism: we celebrate community connection, solidarity, public art and nature. Together we will take back creative control of our neighbourhoods and make space for what we need to thrive.”

Local Adblock groups show that alternatives are possible. For example, Adblock has blocked applications for 30 large digital advertising screens as well as for 50 smaller screens; has worked with the council to get several existing billboards removed; and has successfully lobbied for the introduction of a local Advertising and Sponsorship Policy that prohibits ads for junk food, payday loans, gambling, alcohol and adverts in parks for sites under the Council’s direct control. Adblock Brum has stopped 14 new billboard applications and Adblock Norwich has worked with local councillors to propose a motion to restrict harmful advertising. Adblock Bristol also set up the Burg Arts project, a community arts billboard which has featured a series of artworks organised by local artists and now works with local groups to reimagine their communities. These are all successes that could be replicated elsewhere.

Adfree Cities is the national network of these local groups who are concerned about the impacts of corporate advertising on our health, wellbeing, environment, climate, communities and the local economy.

This guide will help you set up a new group in your area. Groups in the Adfree Cities network have a shared vision and values: adfreecities.org.uk/our-vision-and-values. Within this framework, all member groups are autonomous: the Adfree Cities team is here

3 to enable and support member groups to build and deliver effective campaigns, but ultimately how you do this is up to you and depends on your local context, priorities and preferences.

A community demonstration against digital advertising screens in Bristol, July 2020

THE ADFREE CITIES VALUES

We build power

We know that creating happy, healthy streets won’t ‘just happen’ – we have to do the work to build them. We share skills, information and knowledge so that we can collectively take on this challenge. We train new organisers and work with existing groups in our neighbourhoods, towns and cities. By building a grassroots network, we’re building power to create cities free from the pressures of corporate outdoor advertising.

We value community

We value, celebrate and fght for community ownership of public space, giving people the ability to shape our neighbourhoods and homes. Corporate outdoor advertising promotes big business brands; in contrast, we value the uniqueness of communities. Building relationships is at the heart of our organising, and we work closely within our local areas and with groups to share resources and grow our movement.

4 This is about justice

We see the fght against billboards as part of a wider struggle for social, ecological and economic justice. We take an intersectional approach to our organising, which means understanding that some communities are impacted more by advertising due to issues of class, disability, race, gender and the environmental conditions of different neighbourhoods among other factors. Within our groups, we work to unpack the ways power and oppression show up.

We are creative

Advertising shapes our dreams, our desires and our aspirations – but it shapes them to sell us more stuff we don’t need. We want to create alternatives beyond consumerism. We use playful, imaginative and artistic tactics to challenge the ad industry’s takeover of our streets and our imagination. We campaign for public spaces to be used for community connection, solidarity, public art and rewilded green spaces. We are open to learning, problem-solving, and trying new approaches.

We are part of a movement

While corporate advertising thrives on misinformation, we aren’t afraid to speak truth to power. We seek to create open conversations about the impacts of consumerism, advertising and injustice. In our network we want to build accessible, participatory spaces where people can come together to learn and take action. Although it is not the focus of our work, we recognise the role of creative direct action such as ‘subvertising’ in creating social change and we stand in solidarity with the wider subvertising and anti-advertising movement.

WHAT IS AN ADBLOCK GROUP?

Adblock groups campaign for public spaces that are free from corporate outdoor advertising to create happier, healthier towns and cities. We organise to stop new advertising billboards being constructed and champion alternative visions of our neighbourhoods that celebrate community connection, solidarity, public art and rewilded green spaces. We hold public conversations about the negative impacts of corporate advertising on our environment, our wellbeing and our mental health and lobby local councils to change planning policies.

The frst Adblock group started in Bristol in 2017 and there are now Adblock groups around the UK - see the Find Your Local Group

5 page on our website adfreecities.org.uk/fnd-your-local-group. We are actively looking to create new groups around the country to be part of our national network so if there is not already one in your local area to join consider setting one up yourself! Anyone is welcome to set up an Adblock group where you’re based.

GETTING STARTED

Perhaps you’ve been motivated by a particular obnoxious advert for a damaging product on an existing advertising billboard. Or perhaps a huge new digital screen has gone up in your neighbourhood and you’d like to stop any more. Or you’re annoyed about how the logic of consumerism is affecting our relationships, our identities, our priorities, our climate and public spaces.

We suggest you pull together a small organising team to organise your frst activity. This could be as small as 3 or 4 people to begin with. The activities below are good for getting the ball rolling, to enthuse new people to get involved.

SOME INITIAL ACTIVITIES

FILM NIGHTS

Film nights are a good way to get people inspired and talking. After the flm, you could run a Q&A and ‘How to Get Involved’ discussion.

Ideas for flms:

Subvertisers for (22 minutes) can be screened online - www.youtube.com/watch?v=zunPa9rGndg&ab_channel=SpellingMi stakesCostLives

This Space Available (1 hour 30 minutes) can be purchased - gwenaellegobe.com/available

The Illusionists (different length versions available) is about the globalisation of the beauty industry. It is available for a small fee from the Producer - theillusionists.org/

There are also a number of shorter flms available online that could be used to start a conversation in a meeting or introduce the topic. See for example the Brandalism Project - www.youtube.com/user/BrandalismProject

6 ORGANISE TALKS

Adfree Cities has prepared a replicable presentation with notes that can be delivered by anyone.

An Introduction to Adbusting (1 hour) - contact us for a copy and facilitation notes.

Alternatively you could invite someone from Adfree Cities to give a talk, depending on availability and travel times. Email [email protected]. Or think about local academics, activists and artists or subvertisers who could come and speak.

‘SUBVERTISING’

‘Subverting advertising’ can be an empowering way of speaking back to the one-way dominance of advertisers and to make space for marginalised voices. It can involve altering or replacing corporate advertising with other artwork although there are some legal considerations as outlined in Brandalism’s Subvertising Manual. Although it is not the focus of the work of Adfree Cities and not a tactic we use, we recognise the role of creative direct action such as ‘subvertising’ in creating social change and we stand in solidarity with the wider subvertising and anti-advertising movement. There are also other low risk public facing activities that local Adblock groups can do.

The ‘Six Sheet Cover Up’ (pictured right) is a simple, family-friendly and low risk way of engaging people on the street about advertising. It involves covering a smaller street advertising unit with blank paper, writing a question at the top and then leaving some pens for people to write their replies to the question on the paper. As people write, you can chat to them about the campaign. When you’re fnished and ready to go home, you can simply remove the white paper.

You can also use this as an opportunity to ask specifc relevant local questions, maybe about any planned advertising

7 applications or policies, and gather any data which might be useful for lobbying in the future e.g. email addresses and postcodes of those who you speak to and numbers of people who oppose advertising or particular types of advertising alongside some good quotes.

PLAN A LAUNCH EVENT

You could combine an event with one of the shorter flms above or a talk. Adblock Bristol and Adblock Cardiff, for example, found there was signifcant press interest in their launch events, because the idea of ad-free cities is newsworthy.

Gather the email addresses and contact details of the people who come to your frst meeting and use this as a basis for further action. A good platform to use is Action Network as you can use it to set up petitions, events and send out newsletters as well as capture your email contact list. Adfree Cities has run some basic training on using Action Network which has been recorded. Contact [email protected] for more information.

APPEAL TO A BROAD SELECTION OF PEOPLE

Developing a critique of outdoor advertising allows us to work intersectionally across many issues relating to the environment, climate, gender stereotyping and sexism, public health, children’s health (e.g junk food), parenting, mental health, debt, the economy, planning, public space, and ‘The Right to the City’ concept. It is advisable to build a group that appeals to all these communities at the same time – to create the broadest possible movement in your hometown and harness the maximum amount of campaign energy.

See Adfree Cities’ resources page for the different arguments against outdoor advertising relating to mental health, body image, climate breakdown and local economies: adfreecities.org.uk/resources. To request hard copies of these reports email [email protected].

You also need to think about who you are trying to reach and the methods you use to do this. For example, younger communities may be more likely to engage through social media platforms such as Instagram and older populations may be more likely to see

8 information in a local printed paper or newsletter. It is also important to try to meet people in the spaces that they already access so it could be useful to build links with local community or parent groups as well as the more obvious relevant local groups for organisations such as Friends of the Earth, Extinction Rebellion and Greenpeace.

You also need to think about how you are making your meetings and activities accessible and participatory. Are meetings at a time that works for people with childcare responsibilities? Is your meeting venue accessible? Will some people need any support to attend e.g. travel costs? If you are able to make your events accessible, be really clear about this on the advertising so that everyone knows that they are welcome and can get support if they need it. Think about this in terms of the facilitation of meetings as well. For example, having a check in and go-round at the beginning of a meeting where people introduce themselves with their preferred pronouns (she/her, he/him, they/them, etc.) can set the tone for the type of space you are trying to create. There are other facilitation techniques and ideas that mean that everyone can have their voice heard and feel included in a way that works for them. The Adfree Cities National Coordinator can give advice about group facilitation and other ideas to support you with forming your local group if needed, contact [email protected].

HAVE A POSITIVE MESSAGE

There’s a lot of things to dislike about corporate outdoor advertising, but in opposing them there’s also an opportunity to articulate a positive vision for our cities: e.g “for a city free from corporate outdoor advertising” and “we want to create a happier, healthier and less stressed-out city.” Or talk about positive alternatives for these ad spaces such as street art murals, tree planting and green spaces.

Concerns about advertising related to their intrusiveness, their impact on the environment, body image, gender stereotypes, mental health, debt and the commercialisation of public space will inevitably crop up when discussing advertising, so it’s important to keep coming back to a positive, forward-thinking vision for our towns and cities.

Adblock Bristol’s ‘Burg Arts‘ community billboard shows how art can be a more positive use of public spaces.

9 SET UP A SYSTEM FOR FIGHTING NEW PLANNING APPLICATIONS

Stopping new billboards is a way for your group to have an immediate impact against the corporate outdoor advertising industry and build morale and momentum in the group. Around 20-30 objections to a planning application should be enough to have it ‘called in’ for local councillors to scrutinise the planning application more thoroughly. Between April 2017 and April 2021 in Bristol, 30 planning applications for large digital advertising screens were stopped by Adblock Bristol as well as applications for 50 smaller screens, and between October 2019 and November 2020 Adblock Brum stopped 14 new billboard applications. It is crucial to stop these screens before they get planning permission as they are much, much harder to remove once constructed.

Local councils have a planning portal where you can do a keyword search. Do an online search for ‘planning portal council’ with the name of your council to fnd it.

Once you’re in the planning portal webpage search: ‘advertisement’ and ‘advertising’ to fnd any current applications.

Example of the Cardiff City Council planning portal.

10 MOBILISING PUBLIC RESPONSES TO PLANNING APPLICATIONS

In Adblock Bristol, one member of the group is responsible for checking the list of new planning applications each week. That person alerts a wider internal group of Adblock supporters. If a planning application is found, a separate person writes a very short blog. This is necessary because the information on the Planning Portal is quite dry and technical for members of the public to look at.

A short blog should include:

● The location of the proposed new billboard ● The size (e.g ‘48 sheet’ or ‘20 foot wide’) ● An image (either lifted from the planning application documents or a Google Street View shot of the proposed location) ● The planning reference number ● A link to the planning portal ● The deadline for objections ● The relevant legal grounds for objection which are: damage to amenity and danger to road safety. More information on objecting to planning applications can be found here: https://adfreecities.org.uk/resources/how-to-object-to-new-adve rtising-billboards/

Check out an example blog from Adblock Lambeth here.

The blog post and photo can then be shared in social media posts to mobilise public responses. If enough objections are submitted (e.g 15–20) or the proposed billboard is in a well known location, you may wish to contact the local media, perhaps on Twitter, or with a press release by email. (Here is a dummy press release you can use as a template.) In addition to the above, there are lots of creative ways to garner media coverage and mobilise responses - you can explore new ideas with your group.

LOCAL STRATEGY

PLANNING POLICIES

Local councils can pass a planning policy introducing a presumption against all new planning applications for outdoor advertising. This can be neatly summarised as ‘No New Billboards’. A useful parallel here is the Greater Combined Authority's presumption against planning applications for fracking

11 introduced in 2019, even though national legislation at the time was in favour of fracking. You could lobby the council to introduce a No New Billboards policy in their ‘Local Plan’ or ‘Local Development Framework’ - each council has different versions and names for these.

For example, Adblock Bristol ran a campaign in Spring 2019 calling for a planning policy of No New Billboards to be included in the revision of Bristol City Council’s Local Plan. This involved a petition with a simple ask of ‘No New Billboards’ that gained over 1,700 signatures (https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/no-new-billboards/) This petition was also good for building a local email newsletter list. The petition was submitted as part a formal response to Bristol Council’s consultation on the revision of the Local Plan. https://adfreecities.org.uk/local-plan-consultation-response-may201 9/

ADVERTISING POLICIES AND/OR CONTRACTS

Local councils can also decide what kinds of advertising are allowed on Council-controlled advertising sites (e.g bus stops and billboards on Council land), and can choose to prohibit adverts for socially or environmentally harmful products and services. They can do this via their contracts with advertising companies, and/or via an overarching Advertising Policy.

For example, following lobbying by Adblock Bristol, in March 2021 Bristol Council adopted a new Advertising and Sponsorship Policy prohibiting ads for junk food, payday loans, gambling, alcohol and adverts in parks. The policy will apply to adverts under the Council’s direct control, including bus stop screens and billboards on Council land. And in January 2021 Council passed a Low Carbon Advertising Policy (p15 here) to meet their commitment to becoming a net zero carbon city by 2030 after receiving emails requesting it from local residents. There is more information and a template motion for a Low Carbon Advertising Policy here: www.badverts.org/policymakers-toolkit

CLIMATE EMERGENCY ACTION PLANS

Many councils in the UK have declared a climate emergency and are writing Action Plans to implement this. Campaigners can make a strong argument that these Climate Emergency Action Plans should include a policy of No New Billboards. As well as the carbon emissions caused by the products advertised (fights, SUVs, etc), digital billboards are hugely energy intensive themselves. A bus stop size double ad screen uses 4 times the annual electricity of the average UK home - see adfreecities.org.uk/the-electricity-cost-of-digital-adverts. Adblock has also calculated the direct energy use of outdoor advertising in different cities, which can be adapted to show the impact in your local area too. Find out more here:

12 https://adfreecities.org.uk/the-environmental-impacts-of-corporate- advertising/

ENGAGING WITH COUNCILLORS

As your group grows, you should engage your local councillors. Friendly councillors are very useful allies. It’s useful for them to hear that people in your town / city are concerned about outdoor advertising and they can advise on planning applications and local council policy. Look for friendly councillors, especially in the most affected areas.

You can fnd out more about lobbying councillors here: https://adfreecities.org.uk/how-to-create-ad-free-cities/how-to-lobb y-councillors/

USING ONLINE PLATFORMS TO CONNECT AND ORGANISE

You will probably want to set up a mailing list or email group. Most Adblock groups currently use Action Network, but you might also consider Google Groups, Riseup, an end-to-end encryption service such as ProtonMail or another platform.

It is useful to remember that there are alternatives to the big corporate communications providers, for example using Signal rather than Whatsapp (which is owned by Facebook), and open source participatory technology such as Ushahidi for local mapping.

However, it is hard to get away from the fact that social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook can be very useful campaigning and communication tools and many local groups use them to amplify their message and reach new supporters. Most of our local groups use social media and you can fnd links to their social media accounts on their pages here: adfreecities.org.uk/fnd-your-local-group. You can fnd the Adfree Cities network on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

13 HOW A LOCAL GROUP FITS INTO THE NATIONAL PICTURE

Adfree Cities wants to support new groups to form to make an impact in local towns and cities against the spread of outdoor advertising. But we also want to build a national conversation about the impacts of advertising and consumerism on our environment, our public spaces and our wellbeing. We want to champion alternative visions of our public spaces that celebrate public art, community connections and rewilded green spaces. Local groups can work together to form part of this groundswell.

The current national planning guidance on advertising billboards is out of date and has not taken into account the switch in the industry from paper boards to digital ad screens. As you can read in our Guide to Making Planning Objections, the current legal criteria which can be formally considered in planning decisions is whether an application is harmful to the amenity of an area and whether it poses a danger to road safety as a distraction to road users.

Concerns about climate change, air pollution, the impacts of fast fashion and junk food, the mental health impacts of being constantly pressured to consume - none of these are formally relevant at present.

In the longer term, Adfree Cities is seeking to build a national coalition of like-minded groups to press for changes to these planning laws to give local councils and local residents greater powers to object to billboards and the ability to create ad-free cities. This requires more work.

Adfree Cities also runs campaigns at a UK-wide level, often in collaboration with other like-minded groups, and supports relevant campaigns with similar objectives and focus. As a local group you can also support and link to national and international campaigns to broaden your reach and make links with national and international anti-advertising networks.

14 Adfree Cities is a network of groups across the UK who are concerned about the impacts of corporate advertising. www.adfreecities.org.uk This guide was frst published in May 2021.

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