Sheffield ban on adverts for unhealthy food, gambling, smoking and fossil fuels

Sheffield City Council is bringing in the ban for all advertising hoardings, online media and sponsorship opportunities that fall under its control. Council director of public health Greg Fell said the idea was to “set a tone” rather than see it as a cure for problems such as obesity and gambling.

A meeting of Sheffield City Council’s finance committee (March 18) agreed to the policy.

The full list to come into force from next month is:

• Discrimination against any individual or group on the basis of any protected characteristic;
• Weapons or illegal drugs or products;
• Sexual or pornography-orientated entertainment materials or products;
• Tobacco and related products;
• E-cigarettes/vaping (except as part of certain stop smoking campaigns);
• Gambling or betting products, services or organisations;
• Fossil fuels-related brands;
• Airlines and airports;
• Petrol, diesel and hybrid electric plug-in vehicles;
• Foods and drinks that are high in fat, salt and/or sugar (HFSS), and food ordering services;
• Breast milk substitutes and certain formula milk such as follow-on milk;
• Alcoholic drinks and low/zero alcohol drinks from brands synonymous with alcohol;
• High-cost, short-term loan advancers.

The policy can be eased to support local small and medium-sized businesses.

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The committee report said that potentially revenue could drop but evidence from other local authorities which have brought in similar bans have not seen that as affected brands are switching to spaces which are outside a council’s control.

Council advertising and sponsorship officer Nicola Allen said the advertising industry is dominated by companies whose products are harmful to health and the environment, such as HFSS food and drinks and fossil fuels brands.

Coun Toby Mallinson said: “We really welcome this, think it’s fantastic, a lot of hard work’s gone into it and background research. The ethical side of it, the categories being covered are very good.”

He said that illuminated boards need to be eliminated because of their carbon impact.

His Green Party colleague Coun Marieanne Elliot said that the policy was “really good, really encompassing, fair and progressive”.

She added: “There’s been some research done by AdFree Cities, who I know you’ve worked with, who’ve done a case study in Sheffield that showed that advertising and inequality go hand in hand with some quite interesting stats about the most deprived deciles having much more advertising than the least deprived areas.”

Affected

The AdFree Cities study showed that 60% of advertisements in Sheffield are found in the poorest three deciles (areas) of the city. Just 2% are sited in the most affluent three deciles.

Coun Elliot also commented that, although there are 2,046 affected advertising boards citywide, the policy won’t include others such as those placed on bus stops and phone boxes.

Mr Fell said: “A single ad campaign or a single policy isn’t going to make or break an obesity epidemic or a gambling harm epidemic, but what it does do is set a tone and we hope that others will follow, including JCDecaux, including Clear Channel, including other parties that own advertising estate.

“They all said, with regard to the junk food ban on Transport for London, there would be a massive loss of income. That didn’t happen, actually the opposite was the case, so I guess if we set the tone we hope it will gently encourage others to follow.”

Coun Bryan Lodge asked: “Where does that leave us with things like the theatres – I’m thinking in particular of the World Snooker, has changed sponsorship over the years.

“It’s gone from tobacco, it’s gone through betting, it’s now with a car retailer, which again you think where do we go with this? What happens if they look to change their sponsor, where does that leave us again, because World Snooker is now synonymous with Sheffield and I think we’d all recognise it’d be a blow if we lost it.”

Control

He also asked about sponsorship of events hosted by major venues such as the City Hall and Sheffield Arena, which he said are coming back under council control but going out again.

Ms Allen said that agreements drawn up will allow the council to have negotiations and discussions around third-party events held at those venues with the leisure operators. The aim is to influence operators to bring their policy as close as possible to the council’s.

Mr Fell said: “Premiership football gambling is a particular ‘bete noire’ of mine – I don’t control the Premiership, so there’s not much I can do about that, but I’d rather it wasn’t the case.

“Ditto snooker was once a bete noire of mine – I absolutely agree, we want snooker, it’s an amazing thing to come to Sheffield, but what would happen where – a very hypothetical example – Smith & Wesson were to be the sponsor?

“We can’t control that, let’s be clear, it’s a World Snooker event that happens to be held in Sheffield, but our job is to set the right tone and narrative. The things that we can control does matter but clearly some things just fall outside it.”

Committee chair Coun Zahira Naz welcomed the “ambitious” policy, adding: “We have to limit exposure to products that are contradicted to better outcomes for people and the planet.

“I think this policy is going in the right direction on that but we have also taken a balanced approach to ensure that Sheffield can still attract ambitious opportunities for the city, allow support for local businesses.”