Over the past ten years, car manufacturers have shifted away from selling family cars towards ever bigger, more polluting - but much more profitable due to their higher selling margins - ‘sports utility vehicles’ (SUVs). As a result, vehicle manufacturers have moved the bulk of their advertising spend toward the promotion of SUV ranges rather than traditional cars. In 2018, car maker Ford reportedly spent 85% of its advertising budget promoting SUVs and light trucks in the USA, a big rise in a short time. Globally, rising sales of SUVs are the second biggest cause of increasing CO2 emissions (after power generation, but ahead of aviation and heavy industry).
Car adverts often display images of exotic, wild or rural locations surrounded by plenty of space. They promise adventure, escape and the open road; but the reality in many world cities is gridlocked traffic jams and soaring, illegal levels of air pollution. Research in the UK finds that on average two thirds of SUV purchases are registered to urban addresses. Despite the UK Government introducing legislation to ban the sales of polluting new internal combustion engine cars by 2030, failing to remove advertising for fossil-powered cars risks strongly compromising the success of this policy (all new cars sold today will remain on the streets for an average 6-11 years, many much longer).