Press release, April 28th 2026:
Stop advertising the crisis - the case for fossil fuel advertising bans
Climate and creative industry groups call on governments to ease energy crisis by ending fossil fuel advertising.
A joint briefing signed by 13 climate and creative industry organisations argues that ending the promotion of fossil fuels can help ease the energy crisis, and that continued fossil fuel advertising directly contradicts the emergency demand-reduction policies that governments are putting in place.
The coalition of organisations call for urgent new rules to control the promotion of fossil fuels and fossil fuel-intensive goods and services. The organisations argue that the current energy crisis has created an opportunity for decisive action to help reduce dependence on volatile and unreliable fossil fuel supplies.
The briefing, titled Stop Advertising the Crisis, is published as governments across the world grapple with the largest fossil fuel supply shock in history, triggered by the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz - a passage through which one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas normally flows. Citizens are already being asked to drive less, fly less, and heat less. The coalition argues it is incoherent and politically unsustainable for fossil fuel companies to continue advertising their products freely in the same period.
Andrew Simms, from the New Weather Institute and Badvertising campaign, said:
"Governments are asking citizens to queue for fuel while polluting companies run adverts telling them to fill up and fly away. That contradiction destroys public trust and undermines the very policies governments are trying to implement. An end to advertising that promotes fossil fuel use is the simplest, cheapest, and most coherent response to the cost and vulnerability of oil and gas dependence. This measure can be introduced immediately and will go some way to insulate the economy from endless and worsening oil crises."
The briefing makes three core demands:
- legislation prohibiting advertising for fossil fuel-intensive goods and services;
- an end to fossil fuel companies running brand or reputational advertising during a period of public sacrifice;
- and an end to pricing mechanisms that artificially reduce the cost of luxury high-carbon consumption, such as private jet travel.
The organisations argue that advertising bans are among the least intrusive interventions available, supported by evidence from tobacco, gambling, and junk food ad bans, and already in place in The Hague, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Stockholm and Sydney, among many other cities. A survey of 19,000 people across 13 EU countries found that nearly half support a fossil fuel advertising ban, with supporters outnumbering opponents in every country polled.
Femke Sleegers, from Reclame Fossielvrij, said:
“The energy crisis and the kerosene shortage are forcing us to face the reality of just how dependent holidays have become on fossil fuels. It doesn’t have to be this way. It is advertising that promotes increasingly distant destinations and ever more polluting forms of holiday, such as fly-cruise holidays. The energy crisis is a good time to break with this harmful and kerosene-guzzling trend, with a ban on fossil fuel advertising as a logical first step.”
Julie Forchhammer, from Klimakultur, said:
“This energy crisis exposes clearly the Norwegian paradox: How a country marketing itself as green and sweet in reality is producing record high amounts of oil and gas which will lead to record high profits due to the global energy crisis. Our fossil fuel companies are with their massive campaigns and sponsorships influencing every one of us, from children to prime ministers, to support a petro-loving state and future - with great success. A fossil ad ban is an important step in Norway becoming a true climate leader, not a climate wrecker as it is today.”
The coalition notes that the measures they are calling for are intended to be lasting, not simply crisis-era interventions, in order to cut demand and dependence on fossil fuels in line with national and international climate targets, and to protect against future shocks by reducing fossil fuel demand and dependence.
The full briefing, Stop Advertising the Crisis, is available here.
The organisations that have supported the recommendations set out in the briefing include:
- Adfree Cities - https://adfreecities.org.uk/
- Badvertising - https://www.badverts.org/
- Buni Media - https://www.bunimedia.com/
- ClientEarth - https://www.clientearth.org/
- Common Weal - https://www.commonweal.scot/
- Comms Declare - https://commsdeclare.org/
- Creatives for Climate - https://www.creativesforclimate.co/
- Fossil Free Football - https://www.fossilfreefootball.org/
- Klimakultur - https://www.klimakultur.no/
- New Weather Institute - https://www.newweather.org/
- Reclame Fossielvrij - https://verbiedfossielereclame.nl/
- Scientists for Global Responsibility - https://www.sgr.org.uk/
- Serious People - https://seriouspeople.co/
For more information contact:
Liam Killeen - liam@newweather.org +44 7481 462728, or
Andrew Simms - andrew@newweather.org +44 7957 656370
