Nice ad, shame about the planet

Though unimaginable once, cigarette advertising was effectively banned in the UK. Is it now time to introduce a similar ban on products that harm our planet? asks Naresh Ramchandani

Advertising sold us products to help us deal with climate change, but failed to understand its role in creating the problem in the first place.

Because by being production-heavy or CO2-intensive or non-reusable or non-recyclable, many of the products that agencies promote have an irrefutably negative effect on the environment. Put starkly, when an ad sells one of these products, it advances a company’s profitability, but harms the prospects of humanity. Which brings us to an extremely inconvenient truth for my industry: that such products shouldn’t be allowed to advertise.

If, as it brutally states on the front of a fag packet, SMOKING KILLS, then surely OIL KILLS, FAST FASHION KILLS, MEAT KILLS, SINGLE-USE PLASTIC KILLS, MINERAL WATER KILLS, IMPORTED AVOCADOS KILL, DRIVING KILLS and FLYING KILLS?