Global environmental activist organisation Greenpeace has asked for advertising of internal combustion engines to be snuffed out like cigarette advertising in the 1990s.
Like the marketing of harmful, toxic, carcinogenic chemicals found in some of the biggest cigarette brands like Marlboro,
Winfield and Peter Jacksons, Greenpeace says allowing carmakers to flog carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emitting cars on telly, online, in print and via giant public display advertising is a blight on society.
Writing for The Independent, environmental activist journalist Isabella Kaminski says driving to the school gates should be made as unacceptable as handing a baby a lit cigarette and would start by “killing off” the automotive industry’s “cretinous marketing”.
She says cutting out the human impact of carbon monoxide and associated harmful emissions would start with reducing the appeal of cars.
“Restricting adverts that link cars to social and sexual success or that condone immoderate or irresponsible use – as has been done with alcohol – could be one solution,” Kaminski suggests.
“Manufacturers would instead have to compete over the environmental credentials or safety features of their products,” she adds.
Kaminski wants to see the marketing attitude of large vehicles change in particular, to suit the climate change crisis being faced, and takes aim at one of the biggest SUV badges in the business.
“Once derided as the ‘Chelsea tractors’ of wealthy central London mums, these [SUV] monstrosities have become normalised at precisely the time when we should be weaning ourselves off cars altogether,” she says.
“It’s clever marketing.Earlier this year Land Rover was subject to a Twitterstorm when it released an ad for its new two-tonne SUV, set in an eerily empty Brixton,” Kaminski points out.
“That part of London, normally bumper-to-bumper with steaming cars, is one of the most polluted and congested parts of the capital,” she highlights.
Kaminski believes one of the key ways to address being in “the middle of a global climate and environmental emergency” is to “stop glamourising one of its leading causes”.
One simplistic option she describes as “the nuclear option: Banning advertising and overt branding altogether”.
“Increasingly restricted, from the 1960s when television advertising was banned to 2016 when plain packaging was introduced, over that time smoking rates and related deaths have fallen,” Kaminski explains.But she may already be getting her wish – in Australia at least.
A drop in automotive advertising has been a contributing factor to revenue slump for outdoor billboard company Ooh Media this year.
Ooh’s share price dropped in late August when the company told shareholders it expected to post 2019 financial year earnings of roughly $125-135 million, well below expectations of $162m.
It comes as Australian automotive sales reports continue to slide for nearly 16 consecutive months, with Morgans analyst Ivor Ries telling Fairfax the looming threat of a potential recession has caused purse strings to tighten.
“Roadside billboards, the company’s highest-margin business, was the scene of the worse carnage,” he says.
The frequency and volume of Carsales advertising has ebbed and flowed recently, with online advertising revenue up 1% to $300.1 million.
However, display advertising was down 13% to $64.1 million, reflecting what chief executive Cameron McIntyre describes as a challenging new car market.
“This result is testament to the strength, resilience and diversified nature of our business, as well as our investment in new products and entry into new markets,” he concedes.
“We continue to be the clear market leader in online auto classifieds in Australia with the largest and most engaged consumer audience,” McIntyre adds.
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