Campaigners are calling for tobacco-style advertising bans to curb demand on flights and prevent emissions from rising further. After a summer of record-breaking temperatures exacerbated by global heating, advertising billboards across Europe have been hacked with more than 500 satirical artworks, unveiled today, to highlight the role of airline marketing in driving up greenhouse gas emissions.

Advertising panels in London, Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield, Brighton as well as Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Lisbon, Rome and five other European cities were “hacked” with posters highlighting the aviation industry’s lack of meaningful action to reduce its contribution to climate change.  The airlines referenced in the artworks include KLM, Air France, Lufthansa, British Airways, Ryanair, Easyjet, SAS Airlines, ITA Airways and Etihad – as well as the industry body IATA.

One artwork by artist Darren Cullen satirises the enhanced carbon footprint of Business Class flights, with the text “We’re turning Business Class green with the world’s first on-board golf course”. Another by artist Michelle Tylicki depicts an aeroplane flying over wildfires, with the text “Fly Responsibly”. Other designs by artists Street Market Subvertiser, Soofiya, Lindsay Grime, Hogre and Matt Bonner call attention to ‘greenwashing’ in which airlines and airports make sustainability claims that campaigners say conceal the actual impact aviation has on the planet.

Climate and anti-advertising campaigners are garnering support, with over 300,000 people signing a ‘European Citizen Initiative’ to ban fossil advertising and sponsorship.  As Britain emerges from one of the hottest summers on record, activists and artists from the anonymous Brandalism group and The Subvertisers International network across Europe have targeted airline companies and their advertising agencies on billboards, bus stops and public transport advertising spaces. They highlight the disproportionately large carbon footprint of flying, the fact that the majority of flights are taken by a tiny fraction of the total population, and that airlines have missed all but one of the sustainability targets set by the aviation industry.

Campaigners have written to the leaders of local councils such as Mayor Marvin Rees in Bristol calling for a ban on “fossil advertising” ahead of a High Court appeal against the expansion of Bristol Airport beginning in November 2022. Local authorities in Liverpool, Norwich and North Somerset have already passed motions to restrict adverts for airlines, airports, as well as non-electric cars and fossil fuel companies.

Tona Merriman from Brandalism said: “The allure and glamour of high carbon lifestyles such as frequent flying has been purposefully crafted by the advertising industry and shows no signs of relenting – despite one of the hottest summers on record. Advertising agencies such as Ogilvy, VCCP, Dentsu, DDB Munchen need to consider their role in driving up emissions for airlines they work for such as British Airways, Easyjet, KLM and Lufthansa. We call on employees in those firms to refuse work for high carbon clients.”

A report released earlier this year estimated that, in 2019, global airline advertising could be responsible for emissions of up to 34 MtCO2 – the equivalent of burning 17 million tonnes of coal, which is equivalent to the annual emissions of Denmark in 2017. One report estimates that advertising for airlines and cars in 2019 caused the equivalent of double the annual emissions of Spain in the same year.

Advertising is just one way in which airlines build their influence and maintain their social licence to operate. A recent report from Desmog found that the UK Conservative Party received £651,000 (approx. USD 7,33,328.72) in donations from the aviation industry between April and June 2022, at a time when the government was weighing up tighter emissions regulations for air travel.

The aviation industry is the third largest donor to the Conservative Party, after the finance and property sectors. Campaigners from Adfree Cities and Badvertising are calling for tobacco-style legislation on adverts for high carbon products. Polling by Opinium research in April 2022 found that 68% of UK adults support restrictions on ads for environmentally-damaging products.

This action comes at a time of growing international momentum behind banning high-carbon advertisements. The city of Sydney, home to over five million residents, has recently become the second major city to ban fossil fuel advertising in public spaces, following Amsterdam which became the first city in the world to ban ads from fossil fuel firms and airlines in 2021.

Robbie Gillett, from Adfree Cities, said: “Advertising for airlines and airports is driving up demand for flights and trashing the climate. We urgently need to see the creation of viable, sustainable transport alternatives to flying that ensures job security for workers currently employed in aviation. In the meantime, a simple step that government, both local and national, can take is to prohibit advertising for polluting products – for the benefit of peoples’ health, air quality and the climate.”