Ad bans proliferate from Brighton to Adelaide

The seaside city of Brighton has become the latest UK municipality to pass a ban on advertising for harmful products, including fossil fuels. The policy applies to all council-owned assets including digital ad screens, vehicles, highways, the seafront, websites, hoardings and bicycle parking.

Brighton has a long standing reputation as a green city, and its recent announcement to curb the promotion of fossil fuels is welcome. While fossil fuel advertising is prohibited under the new policy, ads for “products, services or brands with particularly harmful environmental impacts” will be decided on a case by case basis.

A JP Morgan Chase bank advert in Brighton, October 2026. JPMC is the leading financier of fossil fuels in the world.

Across the world in Australia, Adelaide City Council has also voted to ban advertising and sponsorship from coal, oil and gas companies across council property, covering bus stops, banners, and billboards. The motion passed five votes to four and will take effect on 1st July 2027. 

Adelaide, South Australia's capital, is now the 24th Australian jurisdiction to restrict fossil fuel advertising, joining at least 80 other cities and towns worldwide. The ban on fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship has interesting consequences for sports, with the South Australian government warning that the ban could jeopardise the cycling Tour Down Under event, because the race's naming rights sponsor is the Aussie fossil fuel giant Santos. 

Adelaide’s decision will have ripples across the sporting world: Edinburgh, where the City Council introduced a fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship ban in 2024, is the site of the Tour’s next ‘Grand Depart’ in 2027. Whether or not the famous cycling event will face a ban on its fossil fuel sponsors in the first city of the route remains to be seen. 

Grassroots campaigns, NGOs and local policymakers are coming together across the world to take a stand against advertising by fossil fuel companies and other polluters, removing the influence of these harmful companies from public space. We are continuing to lobby the UK government to similarly introduce tobacco-style curbs on polluter advertising, to support the clean energy transition and prioritise public health.