Why this energy shock is the moment to ban fossil fuel ads for good

In response to the historic energy shock that is currently unfolding, governments around the world are rationing fuel and asking citizens to drive less, fly less, and turn down their thermostats. At the same time, fossil fuel and other high-carbon companies are running adverts telling them to fill up and fly away. This is a contradiction that people and the planet cannot afford.

A coalition of 13 climate and creative industry organisations, including ClientEarth, Creatives for Climate and Scientists for Global Responsibility, have called out this contradiction in a new briefing, Stop Advertising the Crisis. The authors call for a permanent end to the promotion of fossil fuel advertising, calling it “perverse in an energy emergency” and outlining the long term benefits of this measure to climate action, public health and energy security.     

The briefing lands as the world faces its 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. With far-reaching impacts on food security, global economies and healthcare systems, the  crisis has made visible something campaigners have long argued: our dependence on fossil fuels is neither inevitable nor stable. Advertising helps keep it that way.

The briefing makes three core demands: legislation to prohibit advertising for fossil fuel-intensive goods and services; an end to fossil fuel companies running brand and reputational advertising during a period of public sacrifice; and a halt to pricing mechanisms - like those that artificially cheapen private jet travel and superyacht ownership - that subsidise luxury high-carbon consumption as the majority suffer from shortages and a rising cost of living. The six leading European oil majors’ have made a combined $22 billion in profit in the first quarter of 2026, the highest quarterly profits since 2022. 

Andrew Simms, from the New Weather Institute and the Badvertising campaign, put it plainly: "Governments are asking citizens to queue for fuel while polluting companies run adverts telling them to fill up and fly away. That contradiction damages 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."

The coalition stresses that these are not emergency measures to be quietly dropped once the crisis passes. The goal is enduring measures that stop fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship, including of fossil fuel-intensive goods and services, to reduce fossil fuel demand in line with national and international climate targets, and insulate economies against the next shock.

Fossil fuel advertising bans are already in place in cities including The Hague, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Stockholm and Sydney. Increasing numbers of local and municipal ad bans demonstrates growing momentum, as just this month, the city of Amsterdam banned adverts for fossil fuels and meat in public spaces by local law. A survey of 19,000 people across 13 EU countries found that nearly half support such bans, with supporters outnumbering opponents in every country polled. 

For Femke Sleegers of Reclame Fossielvrij, the crisis has been clarifying: "The kerosene shortage is forcing us to face the reality of just how dependent holidays have become on fossil fuels. It is advertising that promotes increasingly distant destinations and ever more polluting forms of holiday. The energy crisis is a good time to break with this harmful trend, with a ban on fossil fuel advertising as a logical first step."

And from Norway, a country producing record quantities of oil and gas while marketing itself as a climate leader, Julie Forchhammer of Klimakultur is blunt: "Our fossil fuel companies, with their massive campaigns and sponsorships, are influencing everyone from children to prime ministers to support a petro-loving future. A fossil ad ban is an important step in Norway becoming a true climate leader."

The full briefing, Stop Advertising the Crisis, is available to read here. 

The organisations that have supported the recommendations set out in the briefing include: 

Freddie Daley