Description

Who: Municipality of Norwich, UK

What: Motion passed to limit harmful categories of advertising and sponsorship such as gambling, junk food and environmentally-damaging products.

When: June 2021


Norwich City councilors have unanimously voted to limit harmful categories of advertising and sponsorship such as gambling, junk food and environmentally-damaging products. The motion passed at a full council meeting on 29th June 2021.

The Labour-run Cabinet is now tasked with scoping options for future implementation. Further campaigning and lobbying of the Council will be needed to ensure the historic opportunity to remove some of the most harmful adverts is not missed.

 

Passed motion

This council resolves to:

1) Ask the cabinet to develop and enhance an advertising strategy recognising the harmful effects that junk food, environmentally polluting products and activities, payday lenders, gambling and alcohol can have on local residents. This policy would then be used to ascertain which companies and products the council wishes to associate itself with and support, including local businesses, and ban harmful products, companies or services from being advertised in council owned premises, e.g. car parks, in our communications, or from sponsoring council organised events.

2) Review and update the council’s planning policy to ensure, within legal restrictions, that new advertising hoardings cannot be installed within the proximity of schools.

3) Ask cabinet to work with partners, to phase out all forms of advertising, especially via outdoor media across the city, that are potentially harmful to our communities, to which we as a city council can influence, such as gambling, alcohol, junk food and environmentally damaging products.

4) Write to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, asking for a ban on such forms of unethical advertising nationally and asking to follow the lead of Italy, which in 2018 introduced a ‘Dignity Decree’ that banned all advertisements for gambling services across all channels in the country, meaning gambling advertisements were no longer allowed on television, radio, print media, the internet, or any other public forum in Italy.

Full motion here.

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